My 2 cents 的正確意義?

Question

常常在國外的討論區上看到有人寫上
My 2 cents. 或 My second cents.
我猜它是指My humble opinions, 又覺得它是指 "補充意見"
到底 My 2 cents 的正確意義是什麼呢?

Answer 1

Yes, it means "my humble opinion."


"put in one's two cents' worth"
by Mark Israel

This expression meaning "to contribute one's opinion" dates from the late nineteenth century. Bo Bradham suggested that it came from "the days of $.02 postage. To 'put one's two cents' worth in' referred to the cost of a letter to the editor, the president, or whomever was deserving". According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the first-class postal rate was 2 cents an ounce between 1883 and 1932 (with the exception of a brief period during World War I). This OED citation confirms that two-cent stamps were once common: "1902 ELIZ. L. BANKS Newspaper Girl xiv, Dinah got a letter through the American mail. She had fivepence to pay on it, because only a common two-cent stamp had been stuck on it." On the other hand, "two-cent" was an American expression for "of little value" (similar to British "twopenny-halfpenny"), so the phrase may simply have indicated the writer's modesty about the value of his contribution.