August 05, 2017

Word Origins | Money Units Redux: Lira, Kuruş, Dolar

Mavi Boncuk |

Lira TR [1]
Kuruş  TR [2]
Dolar TR [3]

[1] lira (n.) Italian monetary unit, 1610s, from Italian lira, literally "pound," from Latin libra "pound (unit of weight);" see Libra, and compare livre. There also was a Turkish lira.

[2] groschen (n.) 1610s, small silver coin formerly used in Germany and Austria, from German groschen, altered from Czech groš, name of a coin (about one-thirtieth of a thaler), from Medieval Latin (denarius) grossus, literally "a thick coin," from Latin grossus "thick" (see gross (adj.), and compare groat).

[3] dollar (n.)
1550s, from Low German daler, from German taler (1530s, later thaler), abbreviation of Joachimstaler, literally "(gulden) of Joachimstal," coin minted 1519 from silver from mine opened 1516 near Joachimstal, town in Erzgebirge Mountains in northwest Bohemia. German Tal is cognate with English dale.

The thaler was a large silver coin of varying value in the German states; from 17c. it was the more-or-less standardized coin of northern Germany (as opposed to the southern gulden). It also served as a currency unit in Denmark and Sweden (and later was a unit of the German monetary union of 1857-73 equal to three marks). English colonists in America used the word in reference to Spanish pieces of eight. Due to extensive trade with the Spanish Indies and the proximity of Spanish colonies along the Gulf Coast, the Spanish "dollar" probably was the coin most familiar in the American colonies and the closest thing to a standard in all of them. It had the added advantage of not being British. It was used in the government's records of public debt and expenditures, and the Continental Congress in 1786 adopted dollar as a unit when it set up the modern U.S. currency system, which was based on the suggestion of Gouverneur Morris (1782) as modified by Thomas Jefferson. None were circulated until 1794.
When William M. Evarts was Secretary of State he accompanied Lord Coleridge on an excursion to Mount Vernon. Coleridge remarked that he had heard it said that Washington, standing on the lawn, could throw a dollar clear across the Potomac. Mr. Evarts explained that a dollar would go further in those days than now. [Walsh]

Phrase dollars to doughnuts attested from 1890; dollar diplomacy is from 1910. The dollar sign ($) is said to derive from the image of the Pillars of Hercules, stamped with a scroll, on the Spanish piece of eight. However, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the U.S. Department of the Treasury:
[T]he most widely accepted explanation is that the symbol is the result of evolution, independently in different places, of the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, is that the "S" gradually came to be written over the "P," developing a close equivalent of the "$" mark. It was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785.
Joachimsthal was founded 1604 by Joachim Frederick (1546-1608), Elector of Brandenburg.

guilder (n.)
Dutch gold coin, late 15c., probably from a mispronunciation of Middle Dutch gulden, literally "golden," in gulden (florijn) or some similar name for a golden coin (see golden).

gross (adj.) mid-14c., "large;" early 15c., "thick," also "coarse, plain, simple," from Old French gros "big, thick, fat; tall; strong, powerful; pregnant; coarse, rude, awkward; ominous, important; arrogant" (11c.), from Late Latin grossus "thick, coarse" (of food or mind), in Medieval Latin "great, big" (source also of Spanish grueso, Italian grosso), a word of obscure origin, not in classical Latin. Said to be unrelated to Latin crassus, which meant the same thing, or to German gross "large," but said by Klein to be cognate with Old Irish bres, Middle Irish bras "big."

Its meaning forked in English. Via the notion of "coarse in texture or quality" came the senses "not sensitive, dull stupid" (1520s), "vulgar, coarse in a moral sense" (1530s). Via notion of "general, not in detail" came the sense "entire, total, whole, without deductions" (early 15c.), as in gross national product (1947). Meaning "glaring, flagrant, monstrous" is from 1580s; modern meaning "disgusting" is first recorded 1958 in U.S. student slang, from earlier use as an intensifier of unpleasant things (gross stupidity, etc.).

groat (n.) medieval European coin, late 14c., probably from Middle Dutch groot, elliptical use of the adjective meaning "great, big" (in this case, "thick"), from the name of some large coin (for example the Bremen grote sware, and compare Medieval Latin grossi denarii in reference to a Prague coin) to distinguish it from smaller coins of the same name. Cognate with English great (adj.). Recognized from 13c. in various nations. The original English groat coined of 1351-2 was worth four pence; it was discontinued in 1622. Also see groschen.




florin (n.) type of coin, c. 1300, from Old French florin, from Italian fiorino, from fiore "flower," from Latin florem "flower" (from PIE root *bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom"). The 13c. gold Florentine coin was stamped on the obverse with the image of a lily, the symbol of the city. As the name of an English gold coin, from late 15c.

Copper coin (mangir) dated 1564 (AH 942) from the period of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I (1494-1566) Front of the coin has a geometric motif. The back says "... KOSTANTİNİYE SENE 942". Date 1564 (AH 942)


Kuruş Meninski, Thesaurus [1680], tıpk. Simurg 2000. 

ğroş/ğoroş Ottoman name for Silver Austrian thaler or gold florine.Grosch [1]

First Source: Ahmet Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani [1876]ed. Toparlı, TDK 2000. Kamus-ı Türki [1900]facsimile İstanbul 1998. 

ğuruş 120 akçelik gümüş sikke ~ German grosch equaled one gold solidus (ve 12 silver denarius) Old Latin: denarius grossus [2]

Mangır First Source: manḳūr "copper coin" [ (before 1350 ) ] manğur [ Filippo Argenti, Regola del Parlare Turco (1533) ] from Arabic nḳr root word manḳūr منقور formed with sharp tools.

Mangiz slang for money [ Mikhail Mikhailov, Matériaux sur l'argot et les locutions... (1929) ]

Para  Money EN[3] First Source: pāre "parça TR; piece EN [ TDK, Tarama Sözlüğü (before 1400) ] Silver coin larger than  akçeden before 16th century [ (before 1520) ] from Persian  pāre2 پاره  award, tip, money Middle persian (Pehlevi  or Partian) pārak award, loan repayment. In Avesta (Zend) pāra "borrowed funds. Christian Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch 889. |Indo-European per- root  price and prize EN

Kayme, Kaime First Source: Takvim-i Vekayi 1832 (Newspaper). sehm kāimesi ottoman treasury bond
Sultan ve Kamuoyu: Osmanlı Modernleşme Sürecinde.. [1844-1848], ed. Kırlı, T. İş B. 2009.1842 

See: From Ottoman Kaime to Republics First Emission
kāime kâğıt para TR; paper money EN from AR ḳāˀima ͭ قائمة [#ḳwm/ḳym fa. f.] stand in place of. Similarly: ikame (ikamet), istikamet, kaim (kaymakam), kavim (akvam), kayme, kayyım, kayyum, kıvam, kıyam, kıyamet, kıymet, makam (kaymakam), mukavemet, mukavim, müstakim, takvim 



"Kaime muaccele" (short-term receipt) for the amount of 10 Ghurush (=Piasters). 5th issue (1852). Ottoman Abdulmecid Kaime 10_Ghurush ND(1852) Size, mm: 80x118 (vertical) Mint: Konstantiniyye


[1] groschen (n.) 1610s, small silver coin formerly used in Germany and Austria, from German groschen, altered from Czech groš, name of a coin (about one-thirtieth of a thaler), from Medieval Latin (denarius) grossus, literally "a thick coin," from Latin grossus "thick" (see gross (adj.), and compare groat).

thaler (n.) old German silver coin; see dollar.

dollar (n.) 1550s, from Low German daler, from German taler (1530s, later thaler), abbreviation of Joachimstaler, literally "(gulden) of Joachimstal," coin minted 1519 from silver from mine opened 1516 near Joachimstal, town in Erzgebirge Mountains in northwest Bohemia. German Tal is cognate with English dale.


dale (n.) Old English dæl "dale, valley, gorge," from Proto-Germanic *dalan "valley" (source also of Old Saxon, Dutch, Gothic dal, Old Norse dalr, Old High German tal, German Tal "valley"), from PIE *dhel- "a hollow" (source also of Old Church Slavonic dolu "pit," Russian dol "valley"). Preserved by Norse influence in north of England. 

[2] GROSSO Its name comes from the Latin grossus[*], "thick", although the papal grosso had completely lost this feature. It was a name also found in other countries, e.g. the English groat. The roman people popularly referred to it as grossetto ("small grosso"), or lustrino ("little shiny"), as it was the smallest silver coin of the system, worth 5 baiocchi, or ½ giulio. 

SCUDO Another old unit found in many lands, whose name derived from the crest or shield (scudo) with the arms of the pope, or king. Some issues, though, have the pope's head. Another name for this coin was piastra. 

[3] money (n.) mid-13c., "coinage, metal currency," from Old French monoie "money, coin, currency; change" (Modern French monnaie), from Latin moneta "place for coining money, mint; coined money, money, coinage," from Moneta, a title or surname of the Roman goddess Juno, in or near whose temple money was coined; perhaps from monere "advise, warn" (see monitor (n.)), with the sense of "admonishing goddess," which is sensible, but the etymology is difficult. Extended early 19c. to include paper money. 

[*] Gross: mid-14c., "large;" early 15c., "thick," also "coarse, plain, simple," from Old French gros "big, thick, fat; tall; strong, powerful; pregnant; coarse, rude, awkward; ominous, important; arrogant" (11c.), from Late Latin grossus "thick, coarse" (of food or mind), in Medieval Latin "great, big" (source also of Spanish grueso, Italian grosso), a word of obscure origin, not in classical Latin. Said to be unrelated to Latin crassus, which meant the same thing, or to German gross "large," but said by Klein to be cognate with Old Irish bres, Middle Irish bras "big." Its meaning forked in English. Via the notion of "coarse in texture or quality" came the senses "not sensitive, dull stupid" (1520s), "vulgar, coarse in a moral sense" (1530s). Via notion of "general, not in detail" came the sense "entire, total, whole, without deductions" (early 15c.), as in gross national product (1947). Meaning "glaring, flagrant, monstrous" is from 1580s; modern meaning "disgusting" is first recorded 1958 in U.S. student slang, from earlier use as an intensifier of unpleasant things (gross stupidity, etc.). 

gross (n.)  "a dozen dozen," early 15c., from Old French grosse douzaine "large dozen;" see gross (adj.). Earlier as the name of a measure of weight equal to one-eighth of a dram (early 15c.). Sense of "total profit" (opposed to net (adj.)) is from 1520s. 

gross (v.)  "to earn a total of," 1884, from gross (adj.) in the "whole, total" sense. Slang meaning "make (someone) disgusted" (usually with out) is from 1971. Related: Grossed; grossing.

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