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Clams, Cheese, & Bread: Why We Call Money What We Do


UNEEK
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Clams, Cheese, and Bread: Why We Call Money What We Do

by Paul Michael on 17 June 2014

 

dollar-481331743-small.jpg

 

 Money. Sadly, it does make the world go around. There are around 180 different types of currency in the world, including the Albanian lek, the Haitian gourde, the Moroccan dirham, and the Zambian kwacha.

 

But you are more likely to know the slang terms for the US dollar and the British pound than any of those. Do you know where those terms actually came from? Let's take a look.

 

Buck

We use it so often, most of us don't stop to think that the word buck has very little to do with the word dollar. There doesn't seem to be any correlation, anyway. Why do we use bucks, when dollars works just as well? It seems there are many theories surrounding the origin of buck.

 

The most popular is that is derives from the word "buckskins," which were a valuable form of currency when colonials were trading goods with Native Americans.

 

For instance, a cask of whiskey would be worth five buckskins. Perhaps the terms "bucks" just stayed with us, even when deerskins have long since stopped being used as currency.

 

Quid

The natives of Britain commonly refer to the English pound as "quid." Only someone trying to appear very formal would say "pounds," when "that'll be 20 quid" is so much more acceptable.

 

Where did quid come from though? Again, there is not one specific and definitive source, but two popular theories keep appearing in research documents.

 

We know the word quid has been around since the 1600s. The Latin term quid pro quo (something for something... remember Hannibal Lecter?) was widely used back then, and it could have easily been coupled with a monetary exchange. However, the fact that a site of the Royal Mint was in Quidhampton, Wiltshire, is also floated as a possible source.

 

Bread or Dough

We've all heard these terms, and they're especially popular in the UK. Many people suspect that the term came from the fact that bread is one of the most basic forms of food, and something we often used to rely upon for nutrition. "Give us this day, our daily bread," from the Lord's prayer, for instance, could be taken literally or figuratively.

 

The term breadwinner, used commonly from the 1940s onwards, took this idea and ran with it. The term bread was directly tied with someone who earned money.

 

From there, it's easy to see how bread, and subsequently dough, came into common usage. Then there's Cockney rhyming slang. The term "bread and honey" was used instead of money.

But there's enough evidence to suggest that bread was used as a term for money before the Cockney's adopted it.

 

Clams

If something is going to set you back 75 clams, you know what you're going to be paying. A clam is one dollar. How on earth did that connection become established?

 

The most popular answer to this question is that clamshells were once used as currency in different parts of the world. There is also evidence that Native Americans from the California region (the Miwok people) dealt in strings of clamshells as currency, or for barter and trade.

 

Cheddar or Cheese

Although not related to any specific amount, people often refer to money as cheddar, or cheese. Ever wonder why? It appears to date back to the 1960s, when welfare and food stamp recipients were provided with a product called government cheese.

 

It sounds about as appetizing as it probably was, as this processed product was made from surplus milk and different types of cheeses, blended with emulsifiers. Terms like "you get your cheese yet?" started to become synonymous with getting money from the government, not just processed cheese.

 

Sawbuck

Of all the terms on this list, the sawbuck is the easiest to explain. A sawbuck is another name for a sawhorse, which was originally fashioned by lashing two pieces of wood together to form an "X." Some of the first US $10 bills had a large Roman numeral X (10) printed on one side. It was from this simple visual cue that the sawbuck nickname was born.

 

Greenback

We know the term greenback as a generic term for dollars, but back in the mid-1800s, it was not a term of endearment. During the American Civil War, over $400 million in legal tender was printed to finance the conflict. But this money, printed green on one side, did not have the secure backing of gold and silver.

 

Because of this, banks were reluctant to give customers the full value of the greenback dollar. Remember that next time you ask for 100 greenbacks; a history buff may just shortchange you.

 

(By the way, our British readers may know the term from a very popular show from the eighties. Baron Greenback was the master villain that Danger Mouse often tried to overcome.)

 

http://www.wisebread.com/clams-cheese-and-bread-why-we-call-money-what-we-do

 

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Hey that's a good one  and new to me, Thanks  !!  I am sure there are more -  moolah  annie up??  smackaroos?  Cash - Funds  - Chicken Feed  -

 

 

Another interesting fact/story is people having a connection to money in their names -- and there was a radio host at one time whose name was  Bill Dollar  lol

The Most Famous Money Names

There are a few famous money names that everybody knows. There are some famous people whose names sound strangely money-related and then there are those names that definitely relate and make fans wonder why their idols took on the titles. Someone like Kurt Shilling probably didn't intend to have a name related to UK money.

 

On the other hand, 50 Cent was Curtis Jackson before he took on his public name. For all the people who have decided that a name with money in it was a good thought, fans might wonder where the inspiration came from.

Why did Curtis Jackson switch to 50 Cent? He stole it from Kelvin Martin, a Brooklyn robber from the 1980s. Kelvin got the name from for his willingness to rob anyone regardless of how much
money they had. Curtis Jackson is quoted as saying, "I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself by any means."

Not all money names have such violent roots. Johnny Cash for example is only a coincidental name. Cash, a slang term for money, has no bearing on why he has his last name. Similarly, Barry Bonds does not have his last name because of an affection for government monetary funds of low interest. Nor does Brad Penny, a Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, care deeply for the American copper coin memorialising Abraham Lincoln.

One name however, stands out among the crowd.

 

Chris Moneymaker, winner of the 2003 World Series of Poker, is a descendant of gold and silver coinmakers originally named Nurmacher, who changed their German sounding last name to Moneymaker. His success in Texas Hold ‘Em Poker transcended coincidence and made a picturesque landmark in a family that loved money.

 

And, last but not least, for every James Bond fan out there is Moneypenny, the female character who plays 007's co-worker at the MI6.

 

http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-finance-articles/the-most-famous-money-names-3690601.html

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Frog Pelt  ~  It's green.....and leaps from your wallet.   :shrug: 

 

GO RV, and NO BV

 

I prefer "Greenbacks" unless I fall in the lake and they get wet then I call them ............................... never mind!!  :P  :lol:  :lol:

So could we call our dinars "Camelbacks"? :shrug: 

 

They smell like they could have been in the g-string of a camel's backside at an Iraqi camel club, yep Camelbacks it is!!  :eyebrows:  

 

"Hey Rahib ......... ya you .................. bring my "Camelback"!  :bananacamel:  :bananacamel:

 

Thanks for the info Uneek, it is interesting!  :twothumbs: 

Edited by DiveDeepSix
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Hey UNEEK,

 

  Hope you don't mind that I add these 

 

1. Bank: money
2. Benjamins: a one-hundred-dollar bill (in reference to the portrait of Benjamin Franklin that distinguishes it)
3. Big ones: multiples of one thousand dollars
4. Bills: multiples of one hundred dollars
5. Bones: dollars (origin unknown)
6. Bread: money in general (on the analogy of it being a staple of life)
7. Bucks: dollars (perhaps from a reference to buckskins, or deerskins, which were once used as currency)
8. Cabbage: paper money (from its color)
9. Cheddar (or chedda): money (origin unknown, but perhaps from the concept of cheese distributed by the government to welfare recipients)
10. Clams: dollars (perhaps from the onetime use of seashells as currency)
11. Coin: money, either paper or coinage
12-13. Cs (or C-notes): multiples of one hundred dollars (from the Roman symbol for “one hundred”)
14. Dead presidents: paper money (from the portraits of various former US presidents that usually distinguish bills of various denominations)
15. Dime: ten dollars (by multiplication of the value of the ten-cent coin)
16. Dough: money in general (akin to the usage of bread)
17-18. Doubles (or dubs): twenty-dollar bills
19. Ducats: money (from the Italian coin)
20. Fins: five-dollar bills (perhaps from the shared initial sound with fives)
21. Five-spots: five-dollar bills
22. Fivers: five-dollar bills
23. Folding stuff: paper money
24. Greenbacks: paper money (from the color of the ink)
25. Gs: thousand-dollar bills (an abbreviation for grand)
26. Grand: one thousand dollars (as in “three grand” for “three thousand dollars”)
27. Large: thousand-dollar bills
28. Lettuce: paper money (from its color)
29. Long green: paper money (from its shape and color)
30. Loot: money (originally denoted goods obtained illicitly or as the spoils of war)
31. Lucre: money or profit (from the biblical expression “filthy lucre,” meaning “ill-gained money”)
32. Moola (or moolah): money (origin unknown)
33. Nickel: five dollars (by multiplication of the value of the five-cent coin)
34. Ones: dollars (also, fives for “five-dollar bills,” tens for “ten-dollar bills,” and so on)
35. Quarter: twenty-five dollars (by multiplication of the value of the twenty-five-cent coin)
36. Sawbucks: ten-dollar bills (from the resemblance of X, the Roman symbol for ten, to a sawbuck, or sawhorse)
37. Scratch: money (perhaps from the idea that one has to struggle as if scratching the ground to obtain it)
38. Shekels: dollars (from the biblical currency)
39. Simoleons: dollars (perhaps from a combination of simon, slang for the British sixpence and later the American dollar, and napoleon, a form of French currency)
40. Singles: one-dollar bills
41. Skrilla: money (origin unknown)
42. Smackers: dollars (origin unknown)
43. Spondulix: money (either from spondylus, a Greek word for a shell once used as currency, or from the prefix spondylo-, which means “spine” or “vertebra”; these have a common etymology)
44. Stacks: multiples of a thousand dollars
45. Tenners: ten-dollar bills
46. Ten-spots: ten-dollar bills
47. Two bits: twenty-five cents (a reference to pieces of eight, divisible sections of a Mexican real, or dollar)
48. Wad: a bundle of paper money
49. Wampum: money (from the Native American term wampumpeag, referring to native currency)
50. Yards: one hundred dollars

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Greenback

We know the term greenback as a generic term for dollars, but back in the mid-1800s, it was not a term of endearment. During the American Civil War, over $400 million in legal tender was printed to finance the conflict. But this money, printed green on one side, did not have the secure backing of gold and silver.

Read more: http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/186553-clams-cheese-bread-why-we-call-money-what-we-do/#ixzz3DAaRaqLB

Gee that kinda reminds me of today's fiat money!

Edited by Muleslayer
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Hey Moose - don't mind at all -- I enjoyed  reading your list - don't know how I missed  them   but sometimes things on the board get shuffled  pretty quick off the main  page -  Thanks a lot for contributing +1

 

I have a typo in one of my posts above -- I put annie?  I meant anty -- like anty up when you are gambling -- would that count? lol I might be a little off on this one

 

I have heard it called FPWO and BPWO -- Front Pocket Whoop Out and Back Pocket Whoop Out --  I know pretty corny huh??  lol

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