object » option

Chiefly in:   money is/was no option

Classification: English – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • “If money was no option: I would still be doing what I’m doing: being a singer, a performer, an entertainer.” (link)
  • “What would you be eating for dinner if money was no option?” (link)
  • “money is no option here, i dont care how much it costs, i want her to have a great night.” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Wilson Gray (American Dialect Society mailing list, 3 October 2005)

Wilson Gray quoted, “We were taken to parties in stretch limos with drivers, free drinks,
and everything. Money was no option.” And I was off on a Google web search, which netted huge numbers of relevant occurrences of “money is/was no option”.

The contribution of “object” to the semantics of “money is/was no object” — (the availability of) money is no barrier, meaning money doesn’t have to be considered, any amount can be spent — seems to be hard for many people to tease out, and they settle on “no option” (conveying, I guess, that there’s no need to choose on the basis of monetary considerations) as making more sense.

| link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/10/03 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by J Michael Mollohan , 2006/08/18 at 7:46 pm

    Actually, when it come to me, money really is no option for the most part — barter perhaps, theft or subterfuge even. . . Money, not in large denominations. . .

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