Bodle

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small copper coin once used in Scotland, worth only a couple of pence Scots and now obsolete
2. An old, low-value Scottish copper coin, long since withdrawn from circulation
3. A tiny copper currency piece formerly minted and spent in Scotland during earlier centuries

Etymology: The bodle was so small in value that Scots came to use its name for anything trivial. "I don't care a bodle" meant "I don't care at all," and a thing "not worth a bodle" was worthless. The coin was tiny even by the standards of its time: two Scots pennies, a fraction of an English penny. Its low worth is why the name outlived the coin itself. Its origin is less clear. The coin belonged to the Scottish currency system, which ran on separate units from England's, and the name survived in Scots speech long after the coin left circulation. Little is known for certain about where the name itself came from, so the idiom is the surest part of the story.