A fat lot of good

Posted by Victoria S Dennis July 01, 2010 at 14:43In reply to A fat lot of good posted by Adrian on June 30, 2010 at 20:14:

"A fat lot of good that'll do you"

What's the origin of "fat" with this meaning? Any ideas?

The adjective "fat" is used in many figurative senses such as "rich, abundant, fertile, capable of yielding excellent returns, plentiful". "A fat lot of good", like "fat chance", is just an ironic use of this type of sense. (VSD)