FROM COUNTRY TO country, monetary units vary nearly as much as the cultures and languages that use them. But have you ever wondered why a dollar is called a “dollar”?
A recent post on the Oxford Dictionary’s OxfordWords blog explained the origins of the names of the world’s most common currencies.
Here’s where these everyday words come from:
The dollar is the world’s most common currency, used in the US, Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, Singapore and elsewhere.
According to OxfordWords, the Flemish or Low German word ”joachimsthal” referred to Joachim’s Valley, where silver was once mined. Coins minted from this mine became “joachimsthaler”, which was later shortened to “thaler” and which eventually morphed into “dollar”.
“Peso” literally means “weight” in Spanish.
The Italian and Turkish “lira” come from the Latin word “libra“, meaning “pound.”
Source: OxfordWords
Before the euro, the Deutsche mark and the Finnish markka also drew their names from units of weight.
Source: OxfordWords
The Latin word “regalis”, meaning “royal,” is the origin for the Omani and Iranian “rial”.
Similarly, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Yemen all use a currency called the riyal. Before the euro, Spain used ”reals” as well.
Source: OxfordWords
Like the dollar, South Africa’s rand comes from the Dutch name for the South African city Witwatersrand, an area rich in gold.
Source: OxfordWords
The Chinese character 圓, meaning “round” or “round coin”, is responsible for the name of the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen and Korean won.
Source: OxfordWords
Many Scandinavian countries use a currency that derives from the Latin word “corona”, meaning “crown”.
Sweden’s krona, Norway’s krone, Denmark’s krone, Iceland’s króna, the Estonian kroon (now replaced by the euro), and the Czech Republic’s koruna all derive from the same Latin root.
Source: OxfordWords
Jordan, Algeria, Serbia, and Kuwait all call their currency “dinar”.
This is a pretty straightforward truncation of the Latin word “denarius”, which was a silver coin used in ancient Rome.
Source: OxfordWords
The Sanskrit word for wrought silver is “rupya”, which lends its name to the Indian and Pakistani rupee, as well as Indonesia’s rupiah.
Source: OxfordWords
The British pound is derived from the Latin word “poundus” meaning “weight”.
Egypt, Lebanon, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria call their currency pound.
Source: OxfordWords
Russia’s and Belarus’ ruble are named after a measure of weight for silver.
Source: OxfordWords
“Zloty” is the Polish word for ”golden”.
Source: OxfordWords
The Hungarian forint comes from the Italian word “fiorino”, a gold coin from Florence.
The fiorino had a flower, or “fiore” in Italian, stamped on it.
Source: OxfordWords
When coins were minted in precious metals, thieves would shave off small portions of the metal to create new coins.
To combat this, countries began minting coins with jagged edges.
The Malaysian word for jagged is “ringgit”, the name of the currency.
Source: OxfordWords
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