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Origin and history of money

money(n.)

mid-13c., monie, "funds, means, anything convertible into money;" c. 1300, "coinage, coin, 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."

This is from Moneta, a title or surname of the Roman goddess Juno, near whose temple on the Capitoline Hill money was coined (and in which perhaps the precious metal was stored). The name is said to be from monere "advise, warn, admonish" (on the model of stative verbs in -ere; see monitor (n.)), by tradition with an etymological meaning "admonishing goddess," which is sensible, but the etymology is difficult. A doublet of mint (n.2)).

Extended by early 19c. to include paper recognized and accepted as a substitute for coin. The highwayman's threat your money or your life is attested by 1774. Phrase in the money (1902) originally referred to "one who finishes among the prize-winners" (in a horse race, etc.). The challenge to put (one's) money where (one's) mouth is is recorded by 1942 in African-American vernacular.

Money-grub for "avaricious person, one who is sordidly intent on amassing money" is from 1768; money-grubber is by 1835. The image of money burning a hole in someone's pocket is attested from 1520s (brennyd out the botom of hys purs).

I am not interested in money but in the things of which money is the symbol. [Henry Ford]

also from mid-13c.

Entries linking to money

mint(n.2)

place where money is coined, early 15c., from Old English mynet "coin, coinage, money" (8c.), from West Germanic *munita (source also of Old Saxon munita, Old Frisian menote, Middle Dutch munte, Old High German munizza, German münze), from Latin moneta "mint" (see money (n.) ). An earlier word for "place where money is coined" was minter (early 12c.). General sense of "a vast sum of money" is from 1650s. Mint-mark, "mark placed upon a coin to indicate the mint where it was struck," is from 1797.

monitor(n.)

1540s, "senior pupil at a school charged with keeping order, etc.," from Latin monitor "one who reminds, admonishes, or checks," also "an overseer, instructor, guide, teacher," agent noun from monere "to remind, bring to (one's) recollection, tell (of); admonish, advise, warn, instruct, teach," from PIE *moneie- "to make think of, remind" (source also of Sanskrit manayati "to honor, respect," Old Avestan manaiia- "making think"), suffixed (causative) form of root *men- (1) "to think" (source also of Latin memini "I remember, I am mindful of," mens "mind") The notion is "one who or that which warns of faults or informs of duties."

The type of lizard (1826) was so called because it is fabled to give warning to man of Nile crocodiles. Meaning "squat, slow-moving type of ironclad warship" (1862) is from the name of the first vessel of this design, chosen by the inventor, Swedish-born U.S. engineer John Ericsson (1803-1889), because it was meant to "admonish" the Confederate leaders in the U.S. Civil War.

I now submit for your approbation a name for the floating battery at Green Point. The impregnable and aggressive character of this structure will admonish the leaders of the Southern Rebellion that the batteries on the banks of their rivers will no longer present barriers to the entrance of the Union forces. The iron-clad intruder will thus prove a severe monitor to those leaders. ... "Downing Street" will hardly view with indifference this last "Yankee notion," this monitor. ... On these and many similar grounds I propose to name the new battery Monitor. [Ericsson to Asst. Sec. of Navy, Jan. 20, 1862]

Broadcasting sense of "a device to continuously check on the technical quality of a transmission" (1931) led to special sense of "a TV screen displaying the picture from a particular camera."