Another common expression in the English language is An Arm And a Leg. This post will show what this expression means, and will attempt to show its origin and how it is used.

The expression “an arm and a leg” is used to mean a large, and usually excessive, amount of money. The origin of this phrase is uncertain although there are a couple of possibilities.

One theory is that portrait painters would charge the cheapest rate for portraits of only the head and shoulders. Portraits containing arms and legs would be more expensive. While this explanation makes sense, it is usually discarded as inaccurate.

An Arm and a Leg

An Arm and a Leg

The more widely accepted theory is that the phrase was coined during WWII, a war in which many soldiers were wounded and ended up losing an arm and a leg.

This, of course, proved to be very costly because it greatly affected the soldier’s ability to function in society. As the theory goes, as a result of many such injuries, the phrase “an arm and a leg” originated meaning “an excessively large amount of money.”

Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/arm-and-a-leg.html

(see 6:54 – 6:58)

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