idioms - Etymology of "throw good money after bad"?


The idiom "throwing good money after bad" refers to spending more money on something problematic that one has already spent money on, in the (presumably futile) hopes of fixing it or recouping one's original investment.


My question is as to the etymology of this idiom; presumably the "bad" at the end of the phrase means "bad money". Why would the original money spent be considered "bad money"? Surely it's what was done with the money that was bad, not the money itself. And why would the new money being spend be "good"? If the original money is "bad" by virtue of the fact that what it was spent on was bad, then wouldn't this new money be "bad" by the same token?




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