the.com/coupon
a tiny paper bribe that turns thrifty into a competitive sport
means a printed or digital voucher that entitles you to a discount, rebate, or some other deal when you redeem it.
from Straight from the French 'coupon,' meaning a piece cut off, from the verb 'couper,' to cut — itself a cousin of 'coup,' a blow or stroke. Picture literal snipping: the word entered English in the 19th century for the detachable, scissor-ready slips clipped from bonds to claim interest payments. From those financial stubs it drifted to any cut-out ticket, and finally to the discount slips we hoard in drawers today.
- origin
- Coca-Cola issued the first one in 1887
- extreme couponers
- some assemble carts worth hundreds for pennies
- etymology
- from French couper, meaning to cut
- breakage
- billions in rebates go unredeemed yearly
- digital shift
- smartphones quietly killed the scissor drawer
campbell soup company coupons — issued over 100 million coupons annually starting in the 1890s, pioneering the modern coupon system
cigarette coupons — tobacco companies like marlboro used marlboro miles coupons in the 1990s-2000s to redeem merchandise and electronics