The adjective “two-bit: owes its measuring of “cheap,” “trivial,” or “petty” (“two-bit town”) to the value of two coins. The “bit” as a coin has stood for various values over the years, but it has been generally held to be equal to 1/8 of a U.S. dollar or 12-and-a-half cents.
In the early 1900s, two cents (or two cent’ worth of opinion) came into English as a word for an opinion offered on a topic under discussion. The idea is that the person is offering a contribution that could very well be significant or valuable or could be insignificant or valueless – either way at least they contributed. It is often used like this: “Offer your two cents,” or “put your two cent’s worth.”
The idiom “in two shakes” – it goes back to the 19th century – means “very quickly or soon,” and some dictionaries connect it to the lamb’s shaking of its tail. “If you are smart, you find he really does have an uncle, and he can take you to this uncle in the office behind the ticket window, and in two shakes your ticket is in your hand – Salman Rushdie, The New Yorker, 22 July 2019.
Picture Credit : Google