Etymology:
- Newcastle upon Tyne was a major coal -exporting city, so sending coal there would be pointless.
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1851 However curious it may seem for an oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the whale-ground, and however much it may invertedly contradict the old proverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, yet sometimes such a thing really happens; and in the present case Captain Derick De Deer did indubitably conduct a lamp-feeder as Flask did declare. — Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 81..
Submitted on September 01, 2009
Additional definitions for 'carry coals to newcastle':
| Carry Coals to Newcastle | To bring extra, to do anything pointless and needless |
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"carry coals to newcastle." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2020. Web. 18 Feb. 2020. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/carry-coals-to-newcastle_2771>.
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