cross the gypsy’s palm with silver

21:52 Jan 8, 2014 

pero por ejemplo, Merriam Websters nos da:
silver 3 : coin made of silver : silver money : MONEY *cross my palm with silver* *customers T came now with cold hard silver Nelson Algren* *this I do for you and not for silver Pearl Buck*
(No había mirado yo esta definición, antes de hacer mi pregunta... Curioso que Merriam Webster nos dé el ejemplo concreto).

20:47 Jan 8, 2014 

¿Ah sí? ¿Se usa "silver" como equivalente a money? La verdad es que no lo sabía.

20:27 Jan 8, 2014 

es dinero (contante y sonante...) En cualquier caso, como digo en tu entrada, tu opción es ingeniosa y creativa...

11:08 Jan 8, 2014 

Me parece que la gracia de esta expresión está en usar un eufemismo que tenga un dejo de misticismo gitano. O sea, porque sonaría demasiado directo y mercantilista hablar de "pagar" o "dinero" o lamentablemente incluso de "plata" en español, que a diferencia del inglés es un sinónimo de "dinero". Por eso me parece que la referencia al pago debe ser más oblicua, no tan directa.

08:19 Jan 8, 2014 

Thanks a lot for the great explanations! All you say matches with what I knew and "forgot"... parking it behind the left lobe of my brain... Diría que tus intervenciones son "impagables"... y como no eres una "gitana"... espero que no me caiga una "maRdiSión" ;-)

07:11 Jan 8, 2014 

And yes, looking at the examples you've quoted, it can be a crystal ball rather than reading your hand/palm, and there is traditionally an implicit threat behind it: if you don't give me some money you'll regret it, because I'll give you bad luck. This is tied up in folk memory with the old obsession with witchcraft, which is why it's always an older woman: the gypsy woman is or could be a witch, who will curse you if you don't pay (as in the first book you've cited).

07:02 Jan 8, 2014 

It's a very common expression: a set phrase. The gypsy fortune-teller at the fair (not always a genuine gypsy, of course, and presumably never a genuine fortune-teller) always says "cross my palm with silver": i.e. give me a silver coin (not just copper) and I'll tell you your fortune (by reading your hand). It's entered the language. I remember once that I was about to leave a shop without paying (absent-mindedly, not deliberately!), and the shopkeeper said "aren't you going to cross my palm with silver?".

By the way, the gypsy fortune-teller who says this is always an old woman.