For a song

Origin of: For a song

For a song

If something is bought or sold for a song, or if something is going for a song, it means very cheaply or for next to nothing. After all, what does a song cost? The expression dates from 1601, according to the OED, and there does not appear to be an earlier citation for it before Shakespeare used it in All’s Well That Ends Well, Act III, Scene II, “I know a man … sold a goodly manor for a song” (1602). If this is correct, then those who maintain that Shakespeare coined the expression are probably right.