Meaning of 'Lowest common denominator'

[tom]

hero says," i cannot thank you enough."
heroine says, "you are paying me well enough."

hero says,"do you always have to reduce things to the lowest common denominator?"

please tell me the meaning of the last line:what is lowest common denominator?

thanks in advance

tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

The "lowest common denominator" is the most basic element of a situation or relationship.

In your example the hero needed to have work done. The hero hired the heroine to do the work. The heroine did the work. So, the most basic element here is the idea of "exchanging money for work" or "paying". Technically speaking, saying "thank you" is not absolutely necessary. It's more or less a nice "extra". And although saying thank you might be the socially correct thing to do, ultimately the most basic requirement is for the hero to pay the heroine's bill.

Hope that helps.

Amy
_________________
Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tom]

So can we also say:

[lost_soul]

Maybe the hero was coming on to the heroine, and that phrase was to break the ice, but the heroine was not interested or didn't get the underlying meaning, and said that what she said.
That's my view

[Yankee]

[Skrej]

Hi tom,

The phrase actually originates in mathematics, where the lowest common denominator is the smallest multiple in common between the denominators of fractions. Denominator in mathematics refers to the bottom number of a fraction.

For example, with the fraction 1/2, 2 is the denominator. So the lowest (also called the least) common denominator between 1/2 and 1/3 is 6. This is used in adding or subtracting fractions. The job is to find the smallest multiple they have in common.

As you can see, if you're given a list of fractions, it can be a rather tedious job to find this denominator.

So, outside of mathematics, the expression has become an idiom meaning to break things down to the smallest part, or to concentrate on the smaller details.

As Yankee explained, the fact that the heroine unnecessarily points out the fact that she's just doing a job is kind of unnecessary. It also conveys a sense of sarcasm.

The hero's final comment is sort of a complaint or protest against her sarcasm, or the fact that's she's really only worried about the money, or views the fact that she's done the hero such a big favor was meaningless, i.e. she was just doing her job.