Ramblings on the Paradox of Cheap and Best

The other day, a friend of mine and I were in the marketplace. I told him that I was looking for something that was ‘cheap and best’. He raised a serious objection to this. I tried to explain that I had a thin budget and could afford only something that was cheap and best. He clarified that the point of his objection was to my using the expression.

Having known him as a self-proclaimed linguist who ate and drank lexicons, I should have seized the point of his objection. My using the expression cheap and best had galvanized his aptitude for using correct language. It was his millionth objection to what he believed to be “poor language usage”. He was convinced that whether you are in the middle of luxurious linguists or languishing souls, it was important to use literally correct language. Every time he starts this, I would invariably grab the opportunity to flaunt my knowledge of language theories. Now, this was yet another mission for me to propound that the nature of language is arbitrary and hence not necessarily logical. In an instant, our casual shopping exploit turned into a serious language conference in that marketplace-privacy and comfort. Here, I am placing what ensued, for you to agree with or argue over.

Apparently, for him, the expression cheap and best was too absurd. He derided that the phrase was being used by people too often without understanding its paradox. He felt agonized that English was being murdered. Quoting what the lexicon defined, he said if cheap means inexpensive and best means unsurpassed, how could both of them be the qualities of the same thing at once? Is it realistic to expect the best things at cheap rates?

I put forth my interpretation that the qualities cheap and best are to be inter-related. Here, cheap meant being reasonable and best meant good enough. Suddenly, he looked to me like the Socrates of English language. He quickly threw in and said, “Then why can the expression not be recast into good and best? This should mean you want a good product and the best possible bargain. Good and best being the low and high points on a quality scale, the phrase sounds interesting too! This expresses better than the expression cheap and best.

To me his argument sounded like a revelation. Yes. Why not good and best? Why don’t we reason things out and rationalize expressions like the one in question? Is it necessary that we retain these expressions untouched and unmodified?

Just what circumstances could’ve given birth to an offbeat phrase like Cheap and best? This phrase must have been born as an expression by someone who always wanted the best things in life but could never afford them. He decided to be content with a belief that what he had was the best he could get for the money he could pay. So, he always bought cheap and best things. Today, most of us have adopted this unknown man’s favorite brand – Cheap and Best. But I believe that we could perhaps re-brand it as Good and Best, which is a better expression. Any takers?