PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 35, August 26, 2001, Article 10 WORDS ON WEALTH Michael E. Marotta writes: "We all know that "pecu" for cow is the root of "pecuniary." In fact, the German word "das Vieh" (pronounced "fee") has the same entendre. The words "yield" and "gold" share a common root because gold is the color of wheat when it is ripe. Merchant, meretricious, merit, marriage, marine and many more share a common source concept personified by Mercury. A person of merit is often talented. Before the Biblical parable of the talents, the word talent only referred to a weight of metal. In telling the story, Jesus exhorted us to maximize the "talents" given to us by our Master in heaven. It is easy to equate "seal," "sheqel," and "siglos." However, "cash" in its two senses has two different origins. The western word for ready money is equivalent to "case." The name of the Chinese coin has a different origin entirely. The ancient Chinese use of the cowerie shell was most likely the first fiduciary money. In the kanji ideograms of Japanese many "money" words -- "boxing match" i.e., "prize fight" -- have this symbol in their written forms, including "precious metal." In other words, the pre-existing idea of cowerie as money is a modifier for metal that conveys the idea of metal as money."

Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum