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Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 16:55:15 +0800
Subject: A Very Interesting Site - Wilton's Word & Phrase Origins
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Cc: Siva Pillai
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From: jaybee
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Dear Friends,
Here is a very interesting site.
It is about the origin of some English words and
phrases. It makes very interesting reading.
Some words/phrases gave some interesting story
behind them .
The title of the site is
Wilton's Word & Phrase Origins
available at the following URL -
http://www.wordorigins.org/home.htm
One sample 'parukkai' for a pot-ful of rice below.
Regards
JayBee
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dollar
The origin of the almighty dollar is in what is now the Czech Republic. In
1519, a silver mine near the town of Joachimstal (literally "Joachim's
valley," from the German Tal, meaning valley) began minting a silver coin
called, unimaginatively, the Joachimstaler. The coin, which was circulated
widely, became better known by its clipped form, the taler. In Dutch and
Low German, the initial consonant softened to become daler. English adopted
this form, eventually changing its spelling to the modern dollar .
In the American colonies, there was no standard currency. The coin that was
in widest use was the Spanish Peso, known also as "Pieces of Eight" because
it could be divided into eight pie-like pieces. The English colonists
informally assigned the name dollar to this coin. In 1785, when the
Continental Congress established U.S. currency, they adopted dollar as name
for the standard unit of currency, at the suggestion of Governeur Morris
and Thomas Jefferson, because the term was widely known and was not
associated with any form of official English currency. (Jefferson also
coined the term disme, from the French dixieme, for a tenth of a dollar.
Pronounced deem , it eventually became dime.)
The origin of the $ sign has several folkloric stories attached. One says
that Thomas Jefferson invented it, perhaps as a sort of monogram for TS.
Jefferson was the first to use the symbol in relation to the U.S. dollar,
but this story is fanciful. Another says that originally it was U
superimposed over an S, for U.S. of course. Eventually the base of the U
eroded due to poor printing technology, leaving an S with two lines through
it. Another says that it is a variant of a figure eight that appeared on
the Spanish Peso, standing for the pieces of eight. This last is close to
the truth, but not quite there.
The Spanish royal family used on its escutcheon, two pillars (representing
the Pillars of Hercules in Gibraltar and Morocco) crossed by an unfurled
banner reading "Plus Ultra." This symbol appeared on the Peso, and looked
much like the modern $ sign. It was adopted as a symbol for the Peso in the
American colonies, and was transferred to the dollar.
The U.S. was the first nation to adopt an official currency named the
dollar. In 1797, the Bank of England began minting "dollar" coins as
bank-issued currency. Other nations that have adopted the name dollarfor
their currency have done so in emulation of either the U.S. or this
short-lived Bank of England practice.
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