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From: zben@umd5.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.jokes,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Ah !  The Good Old Times
Message-ID: <621@umd5.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 29-Jun-85 13:00:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: umd5.621
Posted: Sat Jun 29 13:00:55 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 06:15:28 EDT
References: <1046@peora.UUCP> <305@ihlpa.UUCP> <196@frog.UUCP> <196@persci.UUCP>
Reply-To: zben@umd5.UUCP (Ben Cranston)
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Organization: U of Md, CSC, College Park, Md
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Xref: watmath net.misc:8182 net.jokes:13047 net.nlang:3311
Summary: Etymology of "dollar", from "thaler"?

In article <196@persci.UUCP> bill@persci.UUCP writes:
>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'. 
>Bill Swan 	{ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!persci!bill

I thought it was taken from "thaler", a unit of money used by the ancient
Greeks or Romans?  Part of the fetish with the ancient democracies that
seemed to afflict our founding fathers (pyramids with eyes and such).

I think whatever root "dolore" came from survives in English in the term
"dolorous", "full of, expressing, or causing pain or sorrow; distressed;
grievous; mournful"...
-- 
Ben Cranston  ...{seismo!umcp-cs,ihnp4!rlgvax}!cvl!umd5!zben  zben@umd2.ARPA