I hear this all the time, "cheap at half the price", to indicate that something is cheap (mostly in an ironic sense, but often used literally), but it makes no sense to me.
Of course, if something was half the price it could probably be considered cheap, especially when compared to its actual price. But it is not half the price, it is the price it is.
There has been a saying in American English: "Cheap at twice the price." This has traditionally been used to indicate that something is a great bargain.
"Cheap at half the price" is a humorous reversal of this statement. It is used to express contempt for the quality or price of an item, or both.
From http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cheap-at-half-the%20-price.html:
Those, who suffer from literalism, faced with an item offered at half the usual price would expect it to be cheap - what isn't cheap if you halve its price? 'Cheap at twice the price', now there is a bargain.
The interpretation of this phrase has caused some debate.
(in Phrasefinder Bulletin Board):
- 'Cheap at half the price' is understood to mean 'reasonably priced' and if people understand that meaning why worry about logical niceties?
- It was never intended to be taken seriously and is a pun on the meaningful phrase 'cheap at twice the price', intended either humorously or in order to deceive.
- It is just an error made by people who meant to say 'cheap at twice the price' but didn't think hard enough about what they were saying.
I have always assumed that it was short for "It would be cheap at half the price." Of course, this doesn't make any sense literally. But it could have started out being used ironically, as a twist on cheap at twice the price, and at some point the meaning was reversed. A Google Ngram doesn't tell us much.
Cheap at twice the price has been around since 1853.
It sounds like it's used ironically.
The iPad is cheap at half the price
Meaning that the item isn't cheap at all, but it would be if it were half the price.
But, apparently there is some deep-rooted debate going on about this.
Phrases.org lists the same explanation I do, along with some background and other interpretations.
This is just a bit of humour, "cheap at half the price" is taking the mick, it means it's not that cheap at all. We use it all the time, I just heard my colleague hear of something that was expensive, and he said "cheap at half the price" meaning it was a rip-off.
I read it as "cheap [because it is] at half the price" in other words it is at half the price, which makes it cheap.
It's a joke, purely and simply. It occurs in several humorous monologues and sketches, where it initially sounds like an endorsement until you think about it and then you realise that it means the opposite of what it sounds like. Therefore, those who say it is ironic are correct.
The phrase "cheap at half the price" is exactly what it says. The person that said it meant "that item is cheap and it's half the price as it should be". Another way of saying it is, "that's cheap and at half the price". The flip side to this is to say "that would be cheap at twice the price", in other words half price.
"Cheap at half the price," is the original and correct form of the saying. The "cheap" does not refer to the price of an item. Rather it refers to the items themselves. In Middle English cheap or "cheep" also meant goods or property. Chaucer used it in this sense in, "...greet cheep is holde at litel pris..." i.e. where there is an abundance ("great number of goods"), the price is less. Thus the street cry, "Cheap at half the price!" was the Middle Ages' version of today's, "All stock now 50% off" sign in a shop window. So you see, Cheap at half the price makes perfect sense after all!
Cheap is a corruption of the middle ages Cheep which meant goods.
Thus "Cheep at half the price" - Goods at 50% off, or similar.
Read your Chaucer.
The meaning is as in the saying—"cheap at half the price". That is, people around the 1930/40's would comment on the prices of goods being not such good value for money, "Yes, it would have been cheap if half of the price," and this was for the most basic of items.
This then was passed down to younger generations, who would quote their parents/grandparents complaining about the prices of goods; this was then spoken as ridicule/mocking of a past era.
Of the price of stockings after the war, for example: you could now almost show off and say "They would have been cheap at half the price, but I can still afford them."
