Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site utecfa.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!utai!uthub!utecfa!youngm From: youngm@utecfa.UUCP (Michael Young) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Origin of the word "dollar" Message-ID: <1733@utecfa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 25-Jun-85 20:51:51 EDT Article-I.D.: utecfa.1733 Posted: Tue Jun 25 20:51:51 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Jun-85 23:41:39 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Engineering Computing Facility, University of Toronto Lines: 16 From article <196@persci.UUCP> by bill@persci.UUCP: > By the way, does anybody know the origin of the word 'dollar'? I've never met > anyone who does. The nearest word to it is the Spanish (Latin?) 'dolore', > which, I'm told, means 'pain'. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, it comes from the early Flemish word "daler", or from the German "taler" (formerly also "thaler"), short for Joachimstaler, applied to a silver coin made from metal obtained in Joachimstal (i.e. Joachim's Valley) in the Erzgebirge, Germany. The forms "doler", "dolor" appeared in the 16th century, "dollor" and "dollar" in the 17th century. -- Michael Robert Young U of T Electrical Engineering {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,watmath}!utcsri!utecfa!youngm