Slang terms for money
Slang terms for money often derive from the appearance and features of banknotes or coins, their values, historical associations or the units of currency concerned.
Within a language community, some of the slang terms vary in social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata but others have become the dominant way of referring to the currency and are regarded as mainstream, acceptable language (for example, "buck" for a dollar or similar currency in various nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria and the United States).
The word "guita" in Lunfardo (Buenos Aires slang) is nowadays synonymous with "money".
This is also in keeping with the reverse, in which "bottle tops" can be used as an expression of holding, offering, or having a low amount of money.
[5] Modern polymer Australian notes have multiple nicknames and varying levels of usage dependant on location and socio-economic class.
A prank petition was later added by someone to Change.org in an attempt to change the official name of the Australian dollar, but it had no real support.
The two-dollar note was known as the "sick sheep" in reference to its green colour and the merino ram that it showed.
[14] Since Canadians and Americans both refer to their respective currencies as "the dollar", and because the two countries tend to mingle both socially and in the media, there is a lot of overlap in slang terms for money.
Since its introduction in 1999, a number of slang terms for the euro have emerged, though differences between languages mean that they are not common across the whole of the eurozone.
Some terms are inherited from the legacy currencies, such as quid from the Irish pound and various translations of fiver or tenner being used for notes.
The Deutsche Mark was worth approximately half as much as the euro (the ratio was 1.95583:1) and some grocers and restaurants were accused of taking advantage of the smaller numbers to increase their prices by rounding to 2:1.
Ege in Finland and Pavo (which is the usual Spanish translation of buck in movies or TV shows, where it refers to dollars) in Spain are also terms applied to the euro.
However, in recent years, due to inflation, the use of these small value coins has declined, and so has the use of these slang terms.
[citation needed]) Other notable names include: In addition, youth have a sub-culture street language for the different denominations.
Using the street slang (sheng), urbanites often amalgamate Swahili, English, and their mother-tongue to concoct meanings and names for the different denominations.
In the East Coast Region (Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang), "50 sen" is replaced with "samah" (where "se" refer to one in Malay).
Alternatively, the term may be derived from the literal meaning ("grandmas") and refer to the image of Catherine the Great on imperial 100 rouble banknotes.
In his book "Generation P" he interprets "lav′ae" as a spelled out abbreviation "LV" which stands for liberal values.
Slang words for greater amounts of money originate from the 1990s and the Russian Civil War eras, when the ruble was suffering hyperinflation.
South African slang for various amounts of money borrows many terms from the rest of the English speaking world, such as the word "grand" when referring to R1,000.
Among the English speaking communities "Bucks" is commonly used to refer to Rands (South African Currency).
[28] Other general terms for money include "bread" (Cockney rhyming slang 'bread & honey', money; this also became dough, by derivation from the same root), "cabbage", "clam", "milk", "dosh", "dough", "shillings", "frogskins", "notes", "ducats", "loot", "bones", "bar", "coin", "folding stuff", "honk", "lampshade", "lolly", "lucre"/"filthy lucre", "p", "moola/moolah", "mazuma", "paper", "scratch", "readies", "rhino"[27] (Thieves' cant),[29] "spondulicks/spondoolic(k)s/spondulix/spondoolies" and "wonga".
Some other pre-decimal United Kingdom coins or denominations became commonly known by colloquial and slang terms, perhaps the most well known being "bob" for a shilling.
A farthing was a "mag", three farthings was "the sun, moon and stars" (three far things...), a silver threepence was a "joey" and the later nickel-brass threepence was called a "thruppenny bit" (/ˈθrʌpni/, /ˈθrʊpni/ or /ˈθrɛpni/); a sixpence was a "tanner", the two-shilling coin or florin was a "two-bob bit", the two shillings and sixpence coin or half-crown was a "half dollar" and the crown was a "dollar".
"As bent as a nine bob note" is or was a common colloquial phrase used to describe something or someone crooked or counterfeit, or alternatively (and now considered offensive) a gay man who is extremely camp.
£5 is commonly called a "fiver", and more rarely a "Lady" (short for "Lady Godiva") due to rhyming slang[31] or a "Deep Sea Diver"[32] or a "Winston" from the image of Winston Churchill on the back of the new note introduced in 2016 £10 is commonly known as a "tenner" or, more uncommonly, a "Darwin", due to the image of Charles Darwin on the back (issued from 7 November 2000 and withdrawn from circulation on 1 March 2018).
£20 is sometimes referred to as a "score", although strictly this is not a slang term for money, as 'score' is a normal word for twenty.
£2,000 has been known as an Archer,[37] having been coined by Rik Mayall's character Alan B'stard in TV comedy The New Statesman.
Dollars: Older-fashioned, but still widely known terms: U.S. coinage nicknames reflect their value, composition and tradition.
"Greenback" originally applied specifically to the 19th century Demand Note dollars created by Abraham Lincoln to finance the costs of the American Civil War for the North.
