All Lombard Street to a china orange

[sue young]

I came across this in a book : what does it mean, and what are its origins?

[ravenhair]

It refers to something which has long odds. It comes from the fact that Lombard Street used to be the centre of banking and finance in London, so it's kind of like staking the entire Bank of England against a little insignificant china ornament.

[Quizmonster]

Just to add a little to Ravenhair's excellent answer...the earliest version of this saying was "All Lombard Street to an eggshell", which first appeared in print in 1763. The "China orange" version appeared in 1815 and another example was "All Lombard Street to ninepence". They all had to do with long-odds situations, as R said; the orange, however, was an actual fruit, as these were frequently imported from China in those days. Then, such an orange was seen as being typical of something of trifling value. Hence, "all the banks' money to a penny", as it were.

[geofbob]

I have no argument with the foregoing explanations of the origins of this expression; but the term is generally used not for "long odds" (ie unlikely) situations, but for "short odds", extremely likely situations - eg "All Lombard Street to a china orange that my train will be late tomorrow!"

[Quizmonster]

Geofbob's right in a way. Both Ravenhair and I should, of course, have said "long-odds-on".

[ravenhair]

You're right, QM and GB. I didn't know about the eggshell part or the real orange thing. Top answers.

[WendyW]

Well I never knew that!! .. and I used to work in Lombard St.

[sue young]

Thanks to all for your responses - much appreciated.