Green’s Dictionary of Slang

continental n.

[SE continental, a coin issued by the Continental Congress during the American War of Independence (1775–83); the coins lost all value with the ending of the war; but note Seal, The Lingo (1999): ‘this almost obsolete phrase is much more likely to be a polite form of don’t give a fuck deriving from the reputation of the Continent for liberated, even excessive sexual behaviour’]

(orig. US) something worthless; usu. in phr. not care/give a continental.

Show quotations
[[US]C.A. Davis Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 33: The wind kinder shook ’em all together so you couldn’t tell a checked shirt from an old Continental].
[US]Knickerbocker (NY) Sept. 309: With a yawning air of don't-care-a-continental-dime-a-tive-ness worthy of Diogenes, our hero drawled out [etc.].
Fremont Dly Jrnl (OH) 16 May 4/3: We are for the United States Government; and we don’t care a continental who knows it.
[US]‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 334: He didn’t give a continental for anybody.
Missouri Republican 16 Feb. n.p.: I am not worrying about the nomination, though. I don’t care a continental if I don’t receive it [F&H].
[US]Banner-Democrat (Lake Provience, LA) 31 Oct. 3/1: He has got the posish, and he don’t care a continental.
[US]A. Adams Log Of A Cowboy 182: I don’t care a continental who wins the egg now.
Dly Ardmoreite 23 June 1/1: The leaders of the republican party [...] do not give a continental how badly Roosevelt is defeated.
M.C. Harris Tents of Wickedness III vii 326: He did not care a continental what they thought [DA].
[US]B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 439: continental, n. a whit; a bit. ‘I don’t care a continental whether he comes or not.’.
H. Hershfield Abie the Agent 16 May [synd. cartoon strip] I got hay fever, everything is upside down, but I don’t give a continental.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Sept. 10/3: Usually he doesn’t even respect the Sabbath, and he doesn’t care a continental for toeball.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 601: Savages in the cannibal islands, say, at ninety degrees in the shade not caring a continental.
[UK]P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 108: You make up your mind what you’re havin’ — your own sittin’ room or the hoosegow — I don’t give a continental.
[Aus]J. Morrison Port of Call 126: I don’t give a continental about the chickens.
[US]D. Dressler Parole Chief 12: Two members who didn’t care a continental how a man voted.
[Ire]H. Leonard Time Was (1981) Act II: Frankly I don’t give a continental.
[Aus]S. Maloney Brush-Off (1998) 72: Nobody gave a flying continental about academic results.
[Aus]Sydney Morning Herald 18 Jan. 🌐 [headline] We don’t give a Continental: Socceroos ready to defy European clubs.