Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable/Dog-cheap

by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Dog-cheap. A perversion of the old English god-chepe (a good bargain). French, bon marché (good-cheap or bargain).

"The sack . . . would have bought me lights as good-cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe."—Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., iii. 3.