A dollar by any other name
Ah, the ubiquitous dollar. We have many names for it. In this post
we’ll cover a few of them.
In the 1550s the word dollar entered the English language.
It referred to any number of coins of various values. Dollar comes from the
German word thaler, an abbreviation of the word Joachimstaler, a word
which referred to the coins minted in the town called Joachimstal, a village
positioned in a valley, taler)
& named for a chap called Joachim.
In 1836 Washington Irving first connected the two words almighty
dollar, defining it as “that great object of universal devotion throughout
our land.”
In 1855 some folks started calling dollars scads. Nobody’s certain
about the source of the word scads, though some etymologists
point toward a fish called the scad. Apparently the scaled,
cold-blooded scads tend to travel in abundant schools. There is no singular
form of the monetary scad, & by 1869 scads
added the generalized meaning, large
amounts. Connection? Nobody knows for sure.
In 1856 the word buck kicked in among American
English speakers. Buck (meaning dollar)
also has no verified source, though some have wondered whether bucks
may have sprung from buckskins, which were used in some
places as a unit of trade on the American frontier.
In 1862, Americans started calling dollars greenbacks. Before this,
paper money was printed & issued by individual banks. The country’s paper
money (initially known as demand notes)
was printed in green ink, thus the name, greenbacks.
In 1895 the word simoleon came to mean dollar. Though nobody’s sure why simoleon
came to mean dollar, & nobody has
found a connection to Roman coin-names, there
were Roman coins called simbella & simodius.
About 1936 the word single came to mean dollar. It doesn’t take much
imagination to see how single came to mean dollar. Single
has been a word in English since 1400 & came from the Old French word sengle,
which meant alone, unaccompanied,
unadorned.
In the 1940s, for no reason I can find, some Americans started
calling dollars rutabagas.
Any thoughts about all these monetary monikers? Please say so in
the comments section.
Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Wordnik, Collins Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, & the OED.
Rutabagas? Is the Wordmonger pulling our collective legs? Oh, my, I wonder if I could start using that just to freak people out. "Excuse me sir, but how many rutabagas does that car cost?"
ReplyDeleteSimoleans has always been a mystery to me. It's on of those noir crime novel words Humphrey Bogart would say. Somehow I don't picture any of the characters Mr. Bogart played as Latin scholars, but you never know....
Hi Anne - I'm with you on the rutabagas & the simoleons. Just plain weird.
DeleteI'VE HEARD THAT BOGART'S FIRST WORDS ON SCREEN WERE, "TENNIS, ANYONE?" WHO'D'A THUNK IT?
DeleteGreat post, Charlie. Interesting stuff. I love this: In 1836 Washington Irving first connected the two words almighty dollar, defining it as “that great object of universal devotion throughout our land.” Yep, for some folks it still is. :) Keep 'em coming. Hugs Paul (and Bob)
ReplyDeleteHey Paul - thanks for the hugs & for the positive thoughts. Great to see (digitally) that you continue to wow the world with good writing. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteSo many names for something so common. I've never heard of rutabagas as a word for money, either. I think Anne should use it!
ReplyDeletePerhaps we all should start using rutabagas in lieu of dollars. It would be a boon to the trucking industry when we all paid our taxes & sent tons of root vegetables to DC & Sacramento.
Delete