10 March: Money Words

To celebrate Money Day, here are 10 origins of Money words explained:

1. Quid: originates from the Latin phrase Quid Pro Quo, translating literally as 'what for what'. The first recorded use of the term "quid" relating to money is in Strange Newes from Bartholomew-Fair, by P. Aretine, published in 1661. It reads, "The fool lost his purse, but how he knew not; for the reckoning being suddainly brought in, his Quids were vanisht."
2. Coin: from the Latin word cuneus for “wedge,” because the dye for stamping metal coins was wedge-shaped.
3. To pay through the nose has its roots from the Danes in Ireland, who would slit the noses of those who refused to pay their taxes.
4. Dollar: from the German taler, which is an abbreviation of Joachimstaler, a town near a silver mine. The silver from the mine was used to make taler, a type of silver coin. "Buck" dates back to days before paper when Americans traded animal skins for goods and services.
5. Cent: from the Latin centum, meaning “hundred” and later “hundredth part”.
6. Cash: from the ancient Chinese, who carried their coins in bundles on strings. A bundle of a hundred coins was called a cash. The Chinese probably got the word from the Portuguese who called their coins caixa, pronounced “cash-a.”
7. Bankrupt: from the Italian banca rotta, literally “broken bench.” In banking's early times, people who exchanged, and lent money did their business in public marketplaces at a bench. If the man at the bench, or the “banker,” ran out of money or acted unethically, his bench would be broken.
8. Piggy bank: in Old English, pygg was a type of clay used to make jars and dishes to hold money. The word eventually morphed into “piggy bank.”
9. Capital: Cattle and other livestock were the first form of money. Each head of cattle was called a caput, which is Latin for “head.” A person with a lot of cattle had lots of caput or “capital”.
10. Farthing: In 1060, an English coin which was minted which was shaped like a Clover – any of the four leaves could be broken off and used as separate pieces of currency. The term for the broken off bits was "fourthings" which evolved into the word farthing.

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