From country to country, monetary units vary nearly as much as the cultures and languages that use them. But have you ever wondered why a dollar is called a "dollar"?

A recent post on the Oxford Dictionary's OxfordWords blog explained the origins of the names of the world's most common currencies. In the slides below, find out where these everyday words come from.


Dollar
The dollar is the world's most common currency, used in the US, Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, and Singapore and elsewhere.
According to OxfordWords , the Flemish or Low German word "joachimsthal" referred to Joachim's Valley, where silver was once mined. Coins minted from this mine became "joachimsthaler," which was later shortened to "thaler" and which eventually morphed into "dollar."

Peso
"Peso" literally means "weight" in Spanish.


Lira
The Italian and Turkish "lira" come from the Latin word "libra," meaning "pound."

Mark
Before the euro, the Deutsche mark and the Finnish markka also draw their names from units of weight.

Tanx jhare. At least no be bbn or davido or suleman or all dis small yeyebrity news. But naira no dey dia, abi naira no be currency?

some thing fresh

Raphaelmary:
Tanx jhare. At least no be bbn or davido or suleman or all dis small yeyebrity news. But naira no dey dia, abi naira no be currency?

Rial

The Latin word "regalis," meaning "royal," is the origin for the Omani and Iranian "rial."

Similarly, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen all use a currency called the "riyal." Before the euro, Spain used "reals" as well.

Rand
Like the dollar, South Africa's rand comes from the Dutch name for the South African city Witwatersrand, an area rich in gold.


Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, and Korean won


The Chinese character "圓," meaning "round" or "round coin," is responsible for the name of the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, and Korean won.


Crown
Many Scandinavian countries use a currency that derives from the Latin word "corona," meaning "crown."
Sweden's krona, Norway's krone, Denmark's krone, Iceland's króna, and the Estonian kroon (now replaced by the euro), and the Czech Republic's koruna all derive from the same Latin root.

What about naira

A

Nigeria needs to change the country's name from Nigeria to Benueria. The blood spilled on the River Niger during the Biafra/Nigeria civil war keeps holding the country back. The name has to be changed for this country to move forward. All corners of the world the name Nigeria strikes fear in the hearts of people. The name is a stigma to us and posterity. To me, i would advise every state to become a country. Lagos is bigger than Togo, Plateau is bigger than many countries in land mass.
change our currency and change our country's name. The name is tarnished already. We are stigmatized and profiled everywhere because of our country.

how about dirhams, Thaka, Rupees?

Youpele52:
From country to country, monetary units vary nearly as much as the cultures and languages that use them. But have you ever wondered why a dollar is called a "dollar"?

A recent post on the Oxford Dictionary's OxfordWords blog explained the origins of the names of the world's most common currencies. In the slides below, find out where these everyday words come from.


Dollar
The dollar is the world's most common currency, used in the US, Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, and Singapore and elsewhere.
According to OxfordWords , the Flemish or Low German word "joachimsthal" referred to Joachim's Valley, where silver was once mined. Coins minted from this mine became "joachimsthaler," which was later shortened to "thaler" and which eventually morphed into "dollar."

Peso
"Peso" literally means "weight" in Spanish.


Lira
The Italian and Turkish "lira" come from the Latin word "libra," meaning "pound."

Mark
Before the euro, the Deutsche mark and the Finnish markka also draw their names from units of weight.

Waiting to hear how naira came about

Those of you waiting for how the naira came about, is on a long thing.





Nigeria's history is dead and gone

This post made me do a quick research on the history of Naira, i didn't get how the name originated. I wonder who was drunk and named it naira on 1 January 1973. but can you imagine that the Naira was 2 Naira to 1 pounds then?

Nothing educative. Explanations zero.

so wetin consign me

How does Naira get her own name

How did we get our naira

Naira nkor?

Very informative

Dinar
Jordan, Algeria, Serbia, and Kuwait all call their currency "dinar."
This is a pretty straightforward truncation of the Latin word "denarius," which was a silver coin used in ancient Rome.

Rupee
The Sanskrit word for wrought silver is "rupya," which lends its name to the Indian and Pakistani rupee, as well as Indonesia's rupiah.

Pound

The British pound is derived from the Latin word "poundus" meaning "weight."
Egypt, Lebanon, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria call their currency pound.

Ruble

Russia's and Belarus' ruble are named after a measure of weight for silver.

Following..............

And still no news about the poor depreciating naira...
Or is it because the words of the good lord say 'be compassionate on the poor"?

U choose not to talk about it at all?

NAIRA-----A currency named after its future-------'N'ever 'A'llow 'I't 'R'ise 'A'gain

...OK

Op, don't be a prodigal child, what about your fatherland

Zloty
"Zloty" is the Polish word for "golden."


Forint
The Hungarian forint comes from the Italian word "fiorino," a gold coin from Florence.
The fiorino had a flower, or "fiore" in Italian, stamped on it.



Ringgit

When coins were minted in precious metals, thieves would shave off small portions of the metal to create new coins.
To combat this, countries began minting coins with jagged edges.
The Malaysian word for jagged is "ringgit," the name of the currency.


Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-currencies-got-their-names-2016-3?IR=T/#ringgit-15

Quite informative

.Ali go die

5naira dat cant buy purewater is that one currency

rands AND nairas

soberdrunk:
Naira nko?

Obviously came from "Nigeria"

Okay