An itchy palm does not have one fixed meaning in recorded folklore. In some English traditions, the right palm foretells receiving money while the left points to paying it away. Records from parts of Ireland and Scotland reverse that pattern: the left palm brings money, while an itching right hand may announce a coming handshake.
The variations are local enough that opposite interpretations can appear within the same country. Irish material collected for the National Folklore Collection, for example, includes both left-hand-money and right-hand-money versions. Other records ignore right and left completely, treat any itching palm as a money omen, or prescribe rubbing the hand on wood to favor the expected result.
Money Coming In and Money Going Out
An Itchy Right Palm Means Money Is Coming
One well-documented British version makes the right hand the receiving hand. Shropshire folklore states that an itching right hand foretells receiving money, while Peterborough folklore records the same interpretation. Jonathan Swift also used the association between an itching right hand and receiving money in Polite Conversation.
An Itchy Left Palm Means Money Will Be Paid Away
The companion rule in several English records gives the left hand the opposite role. Shropshire folklore says that if the left hand itches, money will be paid out. The same right-receives, left-pays pairing appears in recorded Peterborough folklore.
An Itchy Left Palm Means Money Is Coming
Other traditions reverse the English pattern. A Garryhill record from County Carlow says an itching left palm means money is coming. Scottish Highland folklore likewise associates an itching left palm with money soon being counted into the hand. Pennsylvania German and American archival records preserve comparable left-hand-money beliefs.
An Itch Can Predict a Handshake Instead of Cash
An Itchy Right Palm Foretells a Handshake
Money is not always attached to both hands. In one Carlow record, the left palm predicts money while the right predicts a handshake with a stranger. Scottish Highland material gives a closely related rule, and the James T. Callow Folklore Archive preserves American examples in which an itching right hand announces an approaching handshake.
Versions That Change the Usual Right-and-Left Rule
Either Itching Palm Can Mean Money Is Coming
Some records make no distinction between the hands. Material from the Irish Schools’ Collection simply says that if the palm of the hand itches, money should be expected. The Callow archive contains similar Michigan records in which an itching palm, or either palm, foretells incoming or unexpected money.
Rub the Itchy Palm on Wood
In some versions, noticing the itch is followed by an action. Irish records connect an itching left palm with expected money and instruct the person to rub it on wood to make the favorable outcome more certain. An American record from Michigan also says to rub an itching left hand on wood before the expected money arrives.
Palm Means Having Money, Back of the Hand Means Giving It
A nineteenth-century entry in The Folk-Lore Journal divides the omen by surface rather than side. An itch in the palm means having money, while an itch on the back of the hand means giving money. The same record gives a short rubbing ritual involving materials such as wood, brass, brick, or metal.
Right Means Spending, Left Means Saving
One Michigan record preserved by the James T. Callow Folklore Archive gives a less familiar financial contrast: an itching right hand means money will be spent, while an itching left hand means money will be saved. It is a distinct local version rather than a rule that can be applied to American folklore generally.
The Same Country Can Preserve Opposite Versions
Irish archival material shows especially clearly why itchy-palm meanings should not be assigned to an entire country. A record from Garryhill in County Carlow gives left palm = money and right palm = a strange handshake. A Schools’ Collection record from Cill Mhuire in County Kerry gives almost the opposite arrangement: the right hand predicts money, while the left predicts a handshake. Other Irish records omit the hand distinction altogether or pair the left-hand money omen with rubbing the palm on wood.
| Country or Culture | Documented Variation | Meaning | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Right hand itching foretells receiving money | Money coming in | Recorded Shropshire folklore |
| United Kingdom | Left hand itching foretells paying money | Money going out | Recorded Shropshire folklore |
| United Kingdom | Left palm itching means money will soon be counted into the hand | Money coming in | Scottish Highland folklore |
| United Kingdom | Right palm itching foretells shaking hands with a stranger | Coming encounter | Scottish Highland folklore |
| Ireland | Left palm itching means money is coming | Money coming in | Garryhill, County Carlow |
| Ireland | Right palm itching foretells a strange handshake | Coming encounter | Garryhill, County Carlow |
| Ireland | Right hand itching means money may be expected | Money coming in | Cill Mhuire, County Kerry |
| Ireland | Left hand itching foretells a handshake | Coming encounter | Cill Mhuire, County Kerry |
| Ireland | An itching palm means money should be expected | Money coming in | Schools’ Collection record from Kilgobnet |
| United States | Left hand itching foretells receiving money | Money coming in | Multiple Michigan archive records |
| United States | Right hand itching foretells shaking hands with a stranger | Coming encounter | Recorded in Detroit |
| United States | Itching palms without a side distinction foretell money | Money coming in | Recorded in Detroit and surrounding Michigan communities |
| United States | Right hand means spending money; left hand means saving money | Spending or saving | Recorded in Birmingham, Michigan |
| United States | Itching of the left palm means it will soon receive money | Money coming in | Pennsylvania German folklore collection |
An English Literary Record from 1738
Jonathan Swift’s Polite Conversation, first published in 1738, includes the line in which Lady Smart connects an itching right hand with receiving money. The passage does not establish where the superstition began, but it demonstrates that the right-hand money association was recognizable in English conversational material by the early eighteenth century. Later folklore collections preserve both that version and its reversals.
When an Itchy Palm Is a Skin Symptom
The folklore interpretation is separate from the physical cause of itching. Palms can itch because of ordinary skin conditions. The American Academy of Dermatology notes that dyshidrotic eczema can cause intense itching, burning, pain, and small fluid-filled blisters on the palms or fingers. Persistent, painful, blistering, cracked, or otherwise troublesome itching has a medical explanation to investigate rather than a predictive meaning.
📚 Roots of Belief
- Project Gutenberg — Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation in Three Dialogues — Digitized historical text containing the 1738 literary example in which an itching right hand is associated with receiving money.
- Bodleian Libraries — Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte S. Burne — Oxford’s digitized copy records the Shropshire rule that the right hand receives money while the left pays it away.
- National Library of Scotland — The Celtic Magazine — Historical Scottish material records the left-palm money omen and the right-palm handshake omen in Highland folklore.
- National Folklore Collection, UCD — Traditional Irish Superstitions, Garryhill — Schools’ Collection record from County Carlow stating that an itching left palm means money while the right foretells a strange handshake.
- National Folklore Collection, UCD — Piseoga, Cill Mhuire — County Kerry record preserving the opposite Irish arrangement: right-hand itching for money and left-hand itching for a handshake.
- University of Detroit Mercy Libraries — James T. Callow Folklore Archive, Hand and Palm Beliefs — University folklore archive preserving Michigan variants involving incoming money, handshakes, rubbing an itching hand on wood, spending, saving, and versions without a right-left distinction.
- National Folklore Collection, UCD — Kilgobnet, The Schools’ Collection — Irish archival record stating simply that an itching palm means money should be expected, without assigning the omen to a particular hand.
- JSTOR — The Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, Notes and Queries — Folklore Society journal material from 1885 records an itching augury in which the palm means having money and the back of the hand means giving money, along with a rubbing formula.
- JSTOR and Penn State University Press — Edwin Miller Fogel, Beliefs and Superstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans — Open-access scholarly edition of the 1915 folklore collection containing the Pennsylvania German belief that itching of the left palm foretells receiving money.
- American Academy of Dermatology — Dyshidrotic Eczema Signs and Symptoms — Dermatology guidance documenting physical causes of intensely itchy palms, including dyshidrotic eczema and its characteristic hand blisters.