on the nail en · ADP
Etymology
Allegedly from the tradition of striking bargains by placing cash on the nails in Bristol, Limerick and Liverpool. The Oxford English Dictionary, however, cites an Anglo-Norman phrase from c. 1360, "payer sur le ungle" to pay on the (finger)nail meaning "to pay immediately and in full", and the Latin "ad unguem", exactly. It quotes parallel usages from 17th century French, Dutch and German sources and adds that "N.E.D. (1906) notes that: ‘the explanations associating it with certain pillars at the Exchange of Limerick or Bristol are too late to be of any authority in deciding the question’."
Meanings
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(Ireland, UK) Immediately, without delay.
You shall have ten thousand pounds on the nail, and I will take you back to London with me besides and teach you what is fortune.
1845, Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, Or, The Two Nations:Tell me, have you a mind to anything in the Doctor's book? Speak the word, and I will help you to it upon the nail.
1596, Thomas Nashe, Have With You To Saffron Walden:
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(Ireland, UK) Exactly.
Six o'clock on the nail. She wasn't going to be late.
2009, Cathy Kelly, What She Wants:
Relateds
Synonyms
Translations (4)
pl trafiony w sedno (Translations) · fi hetimmiten (Translations) · fr rubis sur l'ongle (Translations) · fi välittömästi (Translations)