This old saying is likely on the lips of a lot of folks in our era of high and increasing prices, and lost jobs. Meaning completely penniless, it was originated by the mid 1800s. It most likely derived from a money pouch, or wallet being flat from lack of cash.

Wallets evolved from leather money pouches in the 1300s. The term wallet was first coined in the late 14th century. No pun intended.

When paper currency was introduced in the 1600s, the shape of our modern wallet began to emerge.

Wallets became pocket sized between the 17th and the 18th centuries. The sole purpose of early wallets was for holding money. If it was empty it was flat, and the owner was “flat broke.”

The earliest known citation of the expression is found in Dictionary of Americanisms: a glossary of words and phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States, by John Russell Bartlett (1805-1886), originally published in 1848, page 132:

“FLAT BROKE. Utterly bankrupt, entirely out of money. The California correspondent of the Boston Post, in speaking of the emigration, says: Many emigrants, arriving in that state of collapsity termed flat broke, staid at Los Angeles because they couldn’t go on.”

The expression was utilized in the works of numerous popular authors in the late 19th century, including Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis and George Pembroke.

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