What is slang word 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).

Australia[edit]

Current denominations[edit]

The five-cent coin is sometimes referred to as «shrapnel» as the smallest remaining coin in value and physical size. This nickname was inherited from one- and two-cent coins when they were abolished in 1996.^[1] Similarly related, as is also used in the United Kingdom, «fivers» and «tenners» are relatively common expressions for five and ten pounds, respectively.
«Beer tokens» can relate to any denomination or combination of. 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.

A twenty-dollar note is called a «lobster» or redback because of its red colour.^[2]

A fifty-dollar note is also known colloquially as a «pineapple» or the «Big Pineapple» because of its yellow colour.^[3]

The $100 note is currently green and is known colloquially as an «avocado» or «green tree frog»,^[4] but between 1984 and 1996 it was grey, and was called a grey nurse (a type of shark).^[5]

In a Simpsons episode set in Australia, one character used the term «dollarydoos» which was later the subject of a failed petition to formally change the name of the Australian dollar.^[6]

Former denominations[edit]

Pre-decimal currency in Australia had a variety of slang terms for its various denominations. The Australian threepence was referred to as a «trey» or a «trey bit», a name probably derived from old French meaning three. The sixpence was often referred to as a «zack», which was an Australian and New Zealander term referring to a coin of small denomination, probably derived from Zecchino. The term was also used to refer to short prison term such as six months. An Australian shilling, like its British counterpart, was commonly referred to as a «bob», and the florin was consequently known as «two bob». Similarly, one Australian pound was colloquially described as a «quid», «fiddly», or «saucepan», the latter as rhyming slang for «saucepan lid/quid». The five-pound note could be referred to as a «fiver», or its derivatives, «deep sea diver» and «sky diver».^{[citation needed]}

A number of post-decimal denominations which have since been discontinued had their own nicknames. The two-dollar note was known as the «sick sheep» in reference to its green colour and the merino ram that it showed. The paper (first and second series) hundred-dollar note was nicknamed the «grey ghost», «grey nurse», or the «Bradman» in recognition of its proximity to the 99.94 batting average of cricketer Donald Bradman.^{[citation needed]}

Canada[edit]

In Canada, the one-dollar coin is known as the loonie. This is because it bears an image of the common loon, a bird.

The two-dollar coin is known as the toonie, a portmanteau combining the number two with loonie. It is occasionally spelled twonie; Canadian newspapers and the Royal Canadian Mint use the toonie spelling.

Similar to the United States 5 cent coins are called nickle (due to the metal it was made of, but note the different spelling), 10 cent coins are dimes, 25 cent coins are quarters or two bits. Dollar amounts are all also referred to as bucks.

A five-dollar note is known colloquially as a fin, a fiver, half a sawbuck.

A ten-dollar note is known colloquially as a ten-spot, a dixie, a sawbuck, or a tenner.

A twenty-dollar note is known colloquially as QE2, or a Queen Sheet (after its portrait of Queen Elizabeth II).

A one hundred-dollar note is known colloquially as a C-Note, a Borden (after its portrait of Prime Minister Robert Borden), or a bill (e.g. $500 is 5 bills). $100.00 is also called an onion in gambling corners.^{[citation needed]}

Discontinued since 2000, the former one thousand-dollar notes were occasionally referred to as «pinkies», because of their distinctive colour.^[7]

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. However, this usually only extends to terms that are not specific to one country or the other. For example, both Canadians and Americans refer to a $100 note as a C-note, but an American might refer to it as a Benjamin, after its portrait of Benjamin Franklin, while a Canadian might refer to it as a Borden, after its portrait of Robert Borden.

In Canadian French, dollar amounts are often referred to as piasses in the same way that an English speaker would use the words «buck» or «bucks» in informal settings. The word piasse is derived from the word piastre.

Czech Republic[edit]

Coins and banknotes are referred to as:
5 CZK coin is called bur
10 CZK coin is called pětka
100 CZK note is called kilo (reference to kilogram – weight unit)
500 CZK note is pětibába (reference to baba = woman on its face and pet = five)
1000 CZK note is litr (reference to litre – volume unit)
milion CZK is mega (obvious 10^6 SI unit prefix)
If someone has a large amount of money, but the exact amount is not known, people say je ve vatě («he is in cotton wool») or je v balíku («he’s in a package»).

Eurozone[edit]

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 German Teuro is a play on the word teuer, meaning ‘expensive’. The Deutsche Mark by comparison was approximately worth half as much as the euro (at a ratio of 1.95583:1) and some grocers and restaurants have been accused of taking advantage of the smaller numbers to increase their actual prices with the changeover by rounding to 2:1, in Portugal the same has happened and usually use the term «Aéreo» with the meaning of «Aéreal», the currency that flies away. In Flanders the lower value copper coins are known as koper (copper) or rosse (~ginger, referring to the colour). Ege in Finland and Pavo (which is the usual Spanish translation of buck on movies or TV shows when it refers to dollars) in Spain are also terms applied to the euro.

India[edit]

In India slang names for coins are more common than the currency notes. For 5 paisa (100 paisa is equal to 1 Indian rupee) it is panji. A 10 paisa coin is called dassi and for 20 paisa it is bissi. A 25 paisa coin is called chavanni (equal to 4 annas) and 50 paisa is athanni (8 annas). 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. The more prevalent terms now (particularly in Mumbai and in Bollywood movies) are peti for a Lakh (Rs. 100,000) and khokha for a Crore (Rs. 10,000,000) and tijori for 100 crores (Rs. 1,000,000,000). Peti also means «suitcase», which is the volume needed to carry a Lakh of currency notes. Tijori means a large safe or a cupboard, which would be the approximate space required to store that money in cash form. Because of the real estate boom in recent times, businessmen also use the terms ‘2CR’ or ‘3CR’ referring to two crores and three crores respectively.

Argentina[edit]

In Argentina, among the years and despite many devaluation milestones, the lunfardo managed to persist in time some special nicknames to certain amount of money, not because color or type of the bill but to different meanings and uses.

Senior people above 65 now (previous to baby-boomer generation) used to call «guita» to the coins of low denomination of cents (‘centavos’), like 2, 5 or 10 cent coins. So «10 guita» meant 10 cents of peso. Today the cents are still legal but non-existent. The word «guita» in lunfardo is synonym for «money».

During the short period of the «Austral» which replaced the traditional «Peso» monetary bill, after the period called ‘dirty war’ (between 1983 and 1990) and in the recent years after year 2.000, people used to call «palo» (stick) to the «million» of australes or pesos, so «2 palos» refers to 2 million pesos.

For the last 20 years or more, after year 1997 at least, and during the government of president Menem, as probably the hiatus of the pre-devaluation era before year 2000, and even today people got used to call «luca» to thousands of pesos, so «5 lucas» it means 5 thousand pesos. Lucas, is a typical masculine name among the X Generation in Argentina.

Then another nickname for the singular peso is «mango», but nobody would call 35.000 «mangos» when they can say 35 «lucas». Also nobody would say 1.000 «lucas» when they can simply say 1 «palo» (1 million pesos)

Mexico[edit]

The mexican coin is called peso
0.5 MXN coin is called toston
10 MXN coin is called Diego
20 MXN bill is called Benito or Beny
200 MXN bill is called Juana
1000 MXN bill is called Miguelito

In general, money is referred to as «lana» (wool) or «feria» (change).

Kenya[edit]

In Kenya there are about 42 different languages, which have different dialects and indigenous names for money, in addition to the official National languages of Swahili and English. In English, Kenyan currency is a Shilling while in Swahili it is «Shilingi». (Indeed, all East African countries refer to their money as Shillings.^{[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. Among the commonly used terms are:

In writing, money is denoted by «Kshs» before or the slang notation «/=» after. For examples, Kshs.1.00 is one-bob, whereas 5,000/= is five-Kei.

Corruption is rampant in the Kenyan government,^[8][9] and corrupt officials in government agencies often refer to illicit kickbacks as «chickens» to avoid anti-corruption and money laundering enforcement.^[10]

Malaysia[edit]

States in Malaysia have different terms for money. Normally, «cents» are called «sen», but in the northern region (Penang, Kedah, Perlis) one «kupang» is 10 sen, thus 50 sen is «5 kupang». «duit» (pronounce «do it») means «money», such as in «Saya tiada wang» («I have no money»).

In the East Coast Region (Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang), «50 sen» is replaced with «samah» (where «se» refer to one in Malay). RM 1 (100 sen) is called «seya» («dua» is two in Malay), and so on.

In Kelantan, «ringgit» is called «riyal». For example, RM 10 (10 ringgit) is called «10 riyal» in Kelantan.^{[citation needed]}

In olden days, RM 10 was called «Red Tiger» because there was a watermark of tiger in a red tone on the RM 10 notes.^[11]

Russia[edit]

General money slang

Generally slang terms for money are following:
«b′abki» — from Czech small anvil for making coins — «b′abka», pl. «b′abki»
«babl′o» — slang from «b′abki»
«lav′ae» — used since 1990s, comes from gypsy word «lavae» means silver. Russian writer Victor Pelevin gives an alternative witty consumeristic meaning to this word. In his book «Generation P» he interprets «lav′ae» as a spelled out abbreviation «LV» which stands for liberal values.
«kap′u:sta» — means cabbage
«derevy′anniy» — a general name for a rouble, a substantive adj. «wooden». Means that rouble is cheap as it is made of wood.

Expressions
«strich bablo» — verb «strich» means «to cut», «to trim» money like from the hedge (also «strich kapu:stu», «strich lavae»)
«kos′it’ babl′o» — «to mow money» (also «kos′it’ kap′u:stu», «kos′it’ lav′ae»), similar to «trim money»
Both expressions mean to earn money in big amounts (usually refers to illegal ways) or to collect money from someone.

Coins

The Russian language has slang terms for various amounts of money. Slang names of copeck coins derive from old Russian pre-decimal coins and are rarely in use nowadays: an «altyn» is three copecks, a «grivennik» is ten copecks, a «pyatialtynny» («five-altyns») is fifteen copecks, and a «dvugrivenny» («two-grivenniks») is 20 copecks. Most of these coins are of Soviet mint and no longer used; only the ten copeck coin remains in circulation.

1 copeck — «kop′eyechka» (diminutive from copeck)
3 copecks — «alt′yn»
10 copecks — «gr′ivennik»
15 copecks — «pyatialt′ynny» («five-altyns»)
20 copecks — «dvugr′ivenny» («two-grivenniks»)

Bills

The word «cherv′onets» means ten rubles and refers to an early 20th-century gold coin of the same name. It is also called «ch′irik» (a diminutive for «cherv′onets»). The words for bank notes from 50 to 1000 rubles are the newest and most modern, since currently (2000s-2010s) bank notes of this value are most common in circulation. 50 rubles are called «polt′innik» (an old word that originally meant 50 copecks), 100 rubles are called «st′ol’nik» (a neologism from the Russian word «sto», meaning «100», not related to the Muscovite office of the same name), 500 rubles are called «pyatih′atka» (lit. «five huts»), «fiol′et» («violet», because of the note’s color), and 1000 rubles are called «sht′u:ka» (means «item», «pack» — 1990-s slang for a pack of bills 100x10RUB or 100x10USD), «kus′ok» («piece», «pack» — also refers to a 100x10RUB pack); or «kos′ar'» — (form «k′oso» — adv. «aslope») initially refers to a fact that in the 1910-20s the number «1000» was printed on the note at 45°. The word «kos′ar'» (homonymic meaning is «mower») can also be referred to another money slang expression «kos′it’ babl′o» — «to mow money» — to earn money in big amounts (usually refers to illegal ways).

1 000 000 RUB — «lim′o:n» (lemon), «lyam» (short from «limon»)
1 000 000 000 RUB — «yard» (milliard), «arb′u:z» (watermelon)

Slovakia[edit]

From 1993 to 2008, Slovakia used its own currency, slovenská koruna (Slovak crown), instead of Euro. During this period, slang words for greater amounts of money were established, including «kilo» (slang for kilogram) for one hundred crowns,^[12] «liter» (liter) for one thousand crowns^[13] and «melón» (melon) for one million crowns.^[14] These slang words are still used after 2008, albeit less frequently.

South Africa[edit]

Decimal currency was introduced in 1961, when the South African pound, previously based on the United Kingdom currency, was replaced by the rand (symbol R) at the rate of 2 rand to 1 pound, or 10 shillings to the rand. Thus the United Kingdom term «bob» for a shilling equates to 10 cents.

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. Other words are unique to South Africa, such as the term «choc» when referring to a R20 note. One «bar» refers to an amount of R1,000,000.

Among the English speaking communities «Bucks» is commonly used to refer to Rands (South African Currency). Less commonly used is the Afrikaans slang for Rands which is «Bokke», the plural of Bok; The Afrikaans word for antelope («Bucks» being the English equivalent), derived from the Springbok image on the old R 1 coin. e.g. R 100 = 100 Bucks/Bokke, R 5 = 5 Bucks/Bokke etc.

Netherlands[edit]

Netherlands-slang(straattaal)

5 cent : centoe, kleingeld, stuiver (in Amsterdam «bijssie»)

10 cents: dubbeltje (double stuiver) «duppie»

25 cents: kwartje (a quarter of a Guilder) (in Amsterdam «heitje»)

1 euro : uru, djara, ballen (pleural), e, ekkie, eu, eccie, pop (Previously when it was 1 Guilder – «piek»)

2.5 Guilders» rijksdaalder (in Amsterdam «knaak»)

5 euro: lotto, vijfje («fiver»)

10 euro: donnie, tientje («tenner»), joet (after yodh, the tenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet) – (in Amsterdam «joet»)

25 euro: twaja donnie, geeltje («yellow one», the former guilder banknote used to be yellow from 1861 until 1909) There is no 25 Euro bill; only a 20 Euro)

50 euro: bankoe

100 euro: barkie, meier (after mea, Hebrew for 100), mud (unit of volume, derived from Latin modius; used to be 100 litres after 1820), snip (the old guilder banknote once had a snipe on it) —

1000 euro: doezoe, mille (from French word for thousand), rooie/rooie rug/rug («red one, red back, back», the former guilder banknote once had a red backside), kop («head»)

100.000 euro: ton

1.000.000 euro: milli

1.000.000.000 euro: billi

1.000.000.000.000 euro: trill, trilly

1.000.000.000.000.000 euro: gerro/gerry

New Zealand[edit]

In New Zealand one dollar and two dollar coins are often referred to as «gold coins». This presumably comes from the term «gold coin donation», which is widely used in New Zealand in schools on days such as mufti day and in a Koha^{[citation needed]}.

One hundred dollar notes are often referred to as «Ern Ruddys» a nod to Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand-born British physicist that features on the one hundred dollar note, also known as the father of nuclear physics.

Sweden[edit]

In Sweden money in general is colloquially referred to by the words stålar, deg («dough») or older klöver («clover») and the English loanword cash. With Rinkeby Swedish and the Swedish hip hop scene para has been introduced.^[15] It is an loanword from Serbo-Croat-Bosnian and Turkish, originating from the Ottoman currency para. Slang terms for the Swedish krona in use today include spänn and bagis. Riksdaler (referring riksdaler, the former Swedish currency) is still used as a colloquial term for the krona in Sweden.^[16] A 20-kronor banknote is sometimes called selma, referring to the portrait of Selma Lagerlöf on the older version of the note.

100-kronor banknote is called hunka and is a wordplay of the word «hundring» meaning hundred, 50 is therefore halvhunka and 200 is dubbelhunka. 200 is to a lesser extent also called «gröning» (green-ing) due to the green color of the banknote, however this can be confusing as «gröning» is also a slang for a gram marijuana.
500 is referred as röding («salvelinus»), «röd» meaning red refers to the color of the banknote.
1000 is called lax («Salmon») because the older 1000 banknotes were pink/orange like the meat of salmon, lesser used terms are: lök (onion) and lakan (sheets).
10.000 is called skjorta (shirt) however it is only used in the rich parts of Stockholm.
1.000.000 is called kanin (rabbit) and derive from the egyptian arabic term were they also call 1 million for rabbit and in more casual speech «mille» which is a shortened version of «miljon».

United Kingdom[edit]

Ready money (i.e. cash) has been referred to in the United Kingdom as «dosh» since^[17] at least 1953; Brewer equates this term with «paying through the nose», dosh being a Russian-Jewish prefix referring to the nose, that is, paying in cash.^[18] The phrase «ready money» has also given rise to the far more popular «readies», though there is debate as to whether this is an obvious reference to the availability of the currency or the red and white colour of the British ten shilling Treasury note of 1914. The related term «cash on the nail» is said to refer to 17th century trading stands in Bristol and elsewhere, over which deals were done and cash changed hands.^[19] 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», «moola/moolah», «mazuma», «paper», «scratch», «readies», «rhino»^[18] (Thieves’ cant),^[20] «spondulicks/spondoolic(k)s/spondulix/spondoolies» and «wonga».

Quid (singular and plural) is used for pound sterling or £, in British slang. It is thought to derive from the Latin phrase «quid pro quo».^[21] A pound (£1) may also be referred to as a «nicker» or «nugget» (rarer).

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», a silver threepence was a «joey» and the later nickel-brass threepence was called a «threepenny bit» (, or ); 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». Slang terms are not generally used for the decimal coins that replaced them but in some parts of the country, «bob» continues to represent one-twentieth of a pound, that is five new pence and two bob is 10p. For all denominations «p» is used for pence.

In the United Kingdom the term «shrapnel» may be used for an inconvenient pocketful of change because of the association with a shrapnel shell and «wad», «wedge» or «wodge» for a bundle of banknotes, with «tightwad» a derogatory term for someone who is reluctant to spend money. Similar to «shrapnel» the use of «washers» in Scotland denotes a quantity of low value coinage. Quantities of UK 1p and 2p coins may be referred to as «Copper», 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p coins as «Silver» and £1 and £2 coins as «Bronze» due to their colour and apparent base metal type. «Brass» is northern English slang for any amount of money.

The one pound note, while still in circulation in Scotland, was occasionally referred to as a «Sheet» and thus the ten shilling note as a «Half Sheet». More commonly the ten shilling note was a «ten bob note» or, in London, «half a bar». «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.

In pub culture five and ten pound notes are sometimes called «blue beer tokens» and «brown beer tokens» respectively.

£5 is commonly called a «fiver», and more rarely a «Lady» (short for «Lady Godiva») due to rhyming slang^[22] or a «Deep Sea Diver»^[23] 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). Other terms used are a «Cockle» from Cock and Hen — ten and «Ayrton», from Ayrton Senna i.e. tenner^[24].
£15 is sometimes referred to as a Commodore^[25] as it’s worth three «Ladies» (see above) after The Commodores song Three Times a Lady.
£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.^[26] £20 is sometimes known as a «Bobby» from Bobby Moore (rhymes with score).
£25 is known as a «pony».
£50 is known as a «bullseye»^[27] (from the points value of the bullseye on a darts board).
£100 is sometimes referred to as a «ton» e.g. £400 would be called 4 ton. Also, a «century» or a «bill» are also used as £100 (e.g. £300 would be three bills).
£500 is known as a «monkey»
£1,000 is commonly referred to as a grand, e.g., £4,000 would be called 4 grand, or rarely in certain dialects as a «bag» (from the rhyming slang «Bag of Sand»), e.g., £4,000 would be called 4 bags.
£2,000 has been known as an Archer,^[28] having been coined by Rik Mayall’s character Alan B’stard in TV comedy The New Statesman.

A «oner» (one-er) has referred to various amounts from one shilling to a pound, to now meaning £100 or £1,000, and a «big one» denoting £1,000. A «oncer» referred particularly to a one-pound note, now defunct.^{[citation needed]}

In London financial culture, a billion pounds or, more often, US dollars, is referred to as a ‘yard’. This derives from the old British English word for a thousand million, a milliard, which has now been replaced by the ‘short scale’ name ‘billion’ from US English. The term ‘million’ for a million pounds or dollars is often dropped when it is clear from context. E.g. «He made three quid last year» would mean «He earned three million pounds».

United States[edit]

General terms include:

Outdated or rarely used terms include:

U.S. coinage nicknames reflect their value, composition and tradition.

• The one-cent coin ($0.01 or 1¢) is commonly called a penny due to historical comparison with the British penny. Older U.S. pennies, prior to 1982, are sometimes called «coppers» due to being made of 95% copper. Pennies dated 1909–1958, displaying wheat stalks on the reverse, are sometimes called «wheaties» or «wheat-backs», while 1943 steel wheat cents are sometimes nicknamed «steelies».
• The five-cent coin ($0.05 or 5¢) is commonly called a nickel due to being made of 25% nickel since 1866. Nickels minted between 1942 and 1945 are nicknamed ‘war nickels’ owing to their different metal content, removing the nickel for a mixture of silver, copper and manganese.
• The dime coin ($0.10 or 10¢) is worth ten cents.
• The quarter coin ($0.25 or 25¢) is worth twenty-five cents. A quarter used to be called two-bits (see below), but this is falling out of use.
• The half ($0.50 or 50¢) is worth fifty cents.

Dimes and quarters used to be sometimes collectively referred to as «silver» due to their historic composition of 90% silver prior to 1965.

A bit is an antiquated term equal to one eighth of a dollar or 12+1⁄2 cents, after the Spanish 8-Real «piece of eight» coin on which the U.S. dollar was initially based. So «two bits» is twenty-five cents; similarly, «four bits» is fifty cents. More rare are «six bits» (75 cents) and «eight bits» meaning a dollar. These are commonly referred to as two-bit, four-bit, six-bit and eight-bit.^[30]

U.S. banknote nicknames reflect their values (such as five, twenty, etc.), the subjects depicted on them and their color.

• $1 bill is sometimes called a «single», a «buck», a «simoleon» or rarely an «ace».^{[citation needed]} The dollar has also been referred to as a «bean» or «bone» (e.g. twenty bones is equal to $20).
• $2 bill is sometimes referred to as a «deuce».
• $5 bill has been referred to as a «fin», «fiver» or «five-spot».^[29]
• $10 bill is a «sawbuck», a «ten-spot», or a «Hamilton».
• $20 bill as a «Jackson», or a «dub», or a «double sawbuck».
• Among horse-race gamblers, the $50 bill is called a «frog» and is considered unlucky. It is sometimes referred to as a «Grant».
• $100 bill is occasionally «C-note» (C being the Roman numeral for 100, from the Latin word centum) or «century note»; it can also be referred to as a «Benjamin» or «Benny» (after Benjamin Franklin, who is pictured on the note), or a «yard» (so $300 is «3 yards» and a $50 bill is a «half a yard»). «A stack» is $1,000 in the form of ten $100 bills, banded by a bank or otherwise.
• Amounts above 1000 US dollars are occasionally referred to as «large» («twenty large» being $20,000, etc.). In slang, a thousand dollars may also be referred to as a «grand» or «G», «K» (as in kilo), or less commonly a «stack», a «bozo», as well as a «band» . For example, «The repairs to my car cost me a couple grand» or «The repairs to my car cost me a couple [of] stacks».
• 1,000 US dollars is called a “rack”, or rarely, a «d-note».
• 10,000 US dollars is called a “stack”.
• 100,000 US dollars is called a «brick» or a «honey bun».

Banknotes may be collectively referred to as «dead Presidents», although neither Alexander Hamilton ($10) nor Benjamin Franklin ($100) was President. These are also referred to as «wallet-sized portraits of Presidents» – referring to the fact that people typically carry pictures in their wallets.

«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. The original note was printed in black and green on the back side. It is still used to refer to the U.S. dollar (but not to the dollars of other countries).

Other more general terms for money, not specifically linked to actual banknotes:

• Monetary units larger than 1 dollar are often referred to by the names of their coin counterparts: $5 is a «nickel», $10 is a «dime», and $25 is a «quarter».
• A one hundred dollar bill can also be called a buck, or a «dollar», but since a buck is also used for one dollar, the context needs to be clear (this continues the pattern of referring to values by the coin counterpart).
• A «hoka» is used to express a large sum of money, usually between ten thousand and fifty thousand dollars.
• «honey bun» derived from the term «honey bun harden» is mainly used when referring to a hundred thousand.
• A million dollars is sometimes called a «closet» or a «rock», popularized by several TV shows and movies. On The Sopranos: in one episode Tony Soprano states, «So adjusting for inflation I’m looking at half a rock?» In a separate episode Soprano states: «This whole thing is going to cost me close to a rock.» Another slang term for a million dollars is an «M», as used in rap songs. Financial institutions and applications will often use «MM» when writing shorthand for a million dollars, as a million is the product of the Roman numeral «M» (1000) times itself. More common usage is a «mil».
• A «yard» is a financial term for one billion dollars, deriving from the French word of the same meaning, «milliard», pronounced ‘mee-yard’.

See also[edit]

• Money
• Digital currency
• World currency

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Brewer, E. Cobham (1978). Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Avenel Books. ISBN 0-517-25921-4.

External links[edit]

• Glossary of money terms at Hemyockcastle.co.uk

With dictionary look up. Double click on any word for its definition.

This section is in advanced English and is only intended to be a guide, not to
be taken too seriously!

Slang money words, meanings and origins

While the origins of these slang terms are many and various, certainly a lot of English money slang is rooted in various London communities, which for different reasons liked to use language only known in their own circles, notably wholesale markets, street traders, crime and the underworld, the docks, taxi-cab driving, and the immigrant communities. London has for centuries been extremely cosmopolitan, both as a travel hub and a place for foreign people to live and work and start their own busineses. This contributed to the development of some ‘lingua franca’ expressions, i.e., mixtures of Italian, Greek, Arabic, Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect), Spanish and English which developed to enable understanding between people of different nationalities, rather like a pidgin or hybrid English. Certain lingua franca blended with ‘parlyaree’ or ‘polari’, which is basically underworld slang.

Backslang also contributes several slang money words. Backslang reverses the phonetic (sound of the) word, not the spelling, which can produce some strange interpretations, and was popular among market traders, butchers and greengrocers.

Here are the most common and/or interesting British slang money words and expressions, with meanings, and origins where known. Many are now obsolete; typically words which relate to pre-decimalisation coins, although some have re-emerged and continue to do so.

Some non-slang words are included where their origins are particularly interesting, as are some interesting slang money expressions which originated in other parts of the world, and which are now entering the English language.

A to Z of Money Slang

archer = two thousand pounds (£2,000), late 20th century, from the Jeffrey Archer court case in which he was alleged to have bribed call-girl Monica Coughlan with this amount.

ayrton senna/ayrton = tenner (ten pounds, £10) — cockney rhyming slang created in the 1980s or early 90s, from the name of the peerless Brazilian world champion Formula One racing driver, Ayrton Senna (1960-94), who won world titles in 1988, 90 and 91, before his tragic death at San Marino in 1994.

bag/bag of sand = grand = one thousand pounds (£1,000), seemingly recent cockney rhyming slang, in use from around the mid-1990s in Greater London; perhaps more widely too.

bar = a pound, from the late 1800s, and earlier a sovereign, probably from Romany gypsy ‘bauro’ meaning heavy or big, and also influenced by allusion to the iron bars use as trading currency used with Africans, plus a possible reference to the custom of casting of precious metal in bars.

bender = sixpence (6d) Another slang term with origins in the 1800s when the coins were actually solid silver, from the practice of testing authenticity by biting and bending the coin, which would being made of near-pure silver have been softer than the fakes.

beer tokens = money. Usually now meaning one pound coins. From the late 20th century. Alternatively beer vouchers, which commonly meant pound notes, prior to their withdrawal.

beehive = five pounds (£5). Cockney rhyming slang from 1960s and perhaps earlier since beehive has meant the number five in rhyming slang since at least the 1920s.

bees (bees and honey) = money. Cockney rhyming slang from the late 1800s. Also shortened to beesum (from bees and, bees ‘n’, to beesum).

bice/byce = two shillings (2/-) or two pounds or twenty pounds — probably from the French bis, meaning twice, which suggests usage is older than the 1900s first recorded and referenced by dictionary sources. Bice could also occur in conjunction with other shilling slang, where the word bice assumes the meaning ‘two’, as in ‘a bice of deaners’, pronounced ‘bicerdeaners’, and with other money slang, for example bice of tenners, pronounced ‘bicertenners’, meaning twenty pounds.

big ben — ten pounds (£10) the sum, and a ten pound note — cockney rhyming slang.

biscuit = £100 or £1,000. Initially suggested (Mar 2007) by a reader who tells me that the slang term ‘biscuit’, meaning £100, has been in use for several years, notably in the casino trade (thanks E). I am grateful also (thanks Paul, Apr 2007) for a further suggestion that ‘biscuit’ means £1,000 in the casino trade, which apparently is due to the larger size of the £1,000 chip. It would seem that the ‘biscuit’ slang term is still evolving and might mean different things (£100 or £1,000) to different people. I can find no other references to meanings or origins for the money term ‘biscuit’.

bob = shilling (1/-), although in recent times now means a pound or a dollar in certain regions. Historically bob was slang for a British shilling (Twelve old pence, pre-decimalisation — and twenty shillings to a pound). No plural version; it was ‘thirty bob’ not ‘thirty bobs’. Prior to 1971 bob was one of the most commonly used English slang words. Now sadly gone in the UK for this particular meaning, although lots of other meanings remain (for example the verb or noun meaning of pooh, a haircut, and the verb meaning of cheat). Usage of bob for shilling dates back to the late 1700s. Origin is not known for sure. Possibilities include a connection with the church or bell-ringing since ‘bob’ meant a set of changes rung on the bells. This would be consistent with one of the possible origins and associations of the root of the word Shilling, (from Proto-Germanic ‘skell’ meaning to sound or ring). There is possibly an association with plumb-bob, being another symbolic piece of metal, made of lead and used to mark a vertical position in certain trades, notably masons. Brewer’s 1870 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable states that ‘bob’ could be derived from ‘Bawbee’, which was 16-19th century slang for a half-penny, in turn derived from: French ‘bas billon’, meaning debased copper money (coins were commonly cut to make change). Brewer also references the Laird of Sillabawby, a 16th century mintmaster, as a possible origin. Also perhaps a connection with a plumb-bob, made of lead and used to mark a vertical position in certain trades, notably masons. ‘Bob a nob’, in the early 1800s meant ‘a shilling a head’, when estimating costs of meals, etc. In the 18th century ‘bobstick’ was a shillings-worth of gin. In parts of the US ‘bob’ was used for the US dollar coin. I am also informed (thanks K Inglott, March 2007) that bob is now slang for a pound in his part of the world (Bath, South-West England), and has also been used as money slang, presumably for Australian dollars, on the Home and Away TV soap series. A popular slang word like bob arguably develops a life of its own. Additionally (ack Martin Symington, Jun 2007) the word ‘bob’ is still commonly used among the white community of Tanzania in East Africa for the Tanzanian Shilling.

boodle = money. There are many different interpretations of boodle meaning money, in the UK and the US. Boodle normally referred to ill-gotten gains, such as counterfeit notes or the proceeds of a robbery, and also to a roll of banknotes, although in recent times the usage has extended to all sorts of money, usually in fairly large amounts. Much variation in meaning is found in the US. The origins of boodle meaning money are (according to Cassells) probably from the Dutch word ‘boedel’ for personal effects or property (a person’s worth) and/or from the old Scottish ‘bodle’ coin, worth two Scottish pence and one-sixth of an English penny, which logically would have been pre-decimalisation currency.

bottle = two pounds, or earlier tuppence (2d), from the cockney rhyming slang: bottle of spruce = deuce (= two pounds or tuppence). Spruce probably mainly refers to spruce beer, made from the shoots of spruce fir trees which is made in alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties. Separately bottle means money generally and particularly loose coinage, from the custom of passing a bottle for people to give money to a busker or street entertainer. I am also informed (ack Sue Batch, Nov 2007) that spruce also referred to lemonade, which is perhaps another source of the bottle rhyming slang: «… around Northants, particularly the Rushden area, Spruce is in fact lemonade… it has died out nowadays — I was brought up in the 50s and 60s and it was an everyday word around my area back then. As kids growing up we always asked for a glass of spruce. It was quite an accepted name for lemonade…»

brass = money. From the 16th century, and a popular expression the north of England, e.g., ‘where there’s muck there’s brass’ which incidentally alluded to certain trades involving scrap, mess or waste which offered high earnings. This was also a defensive or retaliatory remark aimed at those of middle, higher or profesional classes who might look down on certain ‘working class’ entrepreneurs or traders. The ‘where there’s much there’s brass’ expression helped maintain and spread the populairity iof the ‘brass’ money slang, rather than cause it. Brass originated as slang for money by association to the colour of gold coins, and the value of brass as a scrap metal.

bread (bread and honey) = money. From cockney rhyming slang, bread and honey = money, and which gave rise to the secondary rhyming slang ‘poppy’, from poppy red = bread. Bread also has associations with money, which in a metaphorical sense can be traced back to the Bible. Bread meaning money is also linked with with the expression ‘earning a crust’, which alludes to having enough money to pay for one’s daily bread.

brown = a half-penny or ha’penny. An old term, probably more common in London than elsewhere, used before UK decimalisation in 1971, and before the ha’penny was withdrawn in the 1960s.

bunce = money, usually unexpected gain and extra to an agreed or predicted payment, typically not realised by the payer. Earlier English spelling was bunts or bunse, dating from the late 1700s or early 1800s (Cassells and Partridge). Origins are not certain. Bunts also used to refer to unwanted or unaccounted-for goods sold for a crafty gain by workers, and activity typically hidden from the business owner. Suggestions of origin include a supposed cockney rhyming slang shortening of bunsen burner (= earner), which is very appealing, but unlikely given the history of the word and spelling, notably that the slang money meaning pre-dated the invention of the bunsen burner, which was devised around 1857. (Thanks R Bambridge)

bung = money in the form of a bribe, from the early English meaning of pocket and purse, and pick-pocket, according to Cassells derived from Frisian (North Netherlands) pung, meaning purse. Bung is also a verb, meaning to bribe someone by giving cash.

cabbage = money in banknotes, ‘folding’ money — orginally US slang according to Cassells, from the 1900s, also used in the UK, logically arising because of the leaf allusion, and green was a common colour of dollar notes and pound notes (thanks R Maguire, who remembers the slang from Glasgow in 1970s).

carpet = three pounds (£3) or three hundred pounds (£300), or sometimes thirty pounds (£30). This has confusing and convoluted origins, from as early as the late 1800s: It seems originally to have been a slang term for a three month prison sentence, based on the following: that ‘carpet bag’ was cockney rhyming slang for a ‘drag’, which was generally used to describe a three month sentence; also that in the prison workshops it supposedly took ninety days to produce a certain regulation-size piece of carpet; and there is also a belief that prisoners used to be awarded the luxury of a piece of carpet for their cell after three year’s incarceration. The term has since the early 1900s been used by bookmakers and horse-racing, where carpet refers to odds of three-to-one, and in car dealing, where it refers to an amount of £300.

caser/case = five shillings (5/-), a crown coin. Seems to have surfaced first as caser in Australia in the mid-1800s from the Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect) kesef meaning silver, where (in Australia) it also meant a five year prison term. Caser was slang also for a US dollar coin, and the US/Autralian slang logically transferred to English, either or all because of the reference to silver coin, dollar slang for a crown, or the comparable value, as was.

chip = a shilling (1/-) and earlier, mid-late 1800s a pound or a sovereign. According to Cassells chip meaning a shilling is from horse-racing and betting. Chip was also slang for an Indian rupee. The association with a gambling chip is logical. Chip and chipping also have more general associations with money and particularly money-related crime, where the derivations become blurred with other underworld meanings of chip relating to sex and women (perhaps from the French ‘chipie’ meaning a vivacious woman) and narcotics (in which chip refers to diluting or skimming from a consignment, as in chipping off a small piece — of the drug or the profit). Chipping-in also means to contributing towards or paying towards something, which again relates to the gambling chip use and metaphor, i.e. putting chips into the centre of the table being necessary to continue playing.

chump change = a relatively insiginificant amount of money — a recent expression (seemingly 2000s) originating in the US and now apparently entering UK usage. (Thanks M Johnson, Jan 2008)

clod = a penny (1d). Clod was also used for other old copper coins. From cockney rhyming slang clodhopper (= copper). A clod is a lump of earth. A clodhopper is old slang for a farmer or bumpkin or lout, and was also a derogatory term used by the cavalry for infantry foot soldiers.

coal = a penny (1d). Also referred to money generally, from the late 1600s, when the slang was based simply on a metaphor of coal being an essential commodity for life. The spelling cole was also used. Common use of the coal/cole slang largely ceased by the 1800s although it continued in the expressions ‘tip the cole’ and ‘post the cole’, meaning to make a payment, until these too fell out of popular use by the 1900s. It is therefore unlikely that anyone today will use or recall this particular slang, but if the question arises you’ll know the answer. Intriguingly I’ve been informed (thanks P Burns, 8 Dec 2008) that the slang ‘coal’, seemingly referring to money — although I’ve seen a suggestion of it being a euphemism for coke (cocaine) — appears in the lyrics of the song Oxford Comma by the band Vampire weekend: «Why would you lie about how much coal you have? Why would you lie about something dumb like that?…»

cock and hen = ten pounds (thanks N Shipperley). The ten pound meaning of cock and hen is 20th century rhyming slang. Cock and hen — also cockerel and hen — has carried the rhyming slang meaning for the number ten for longer. Its transfer to ten pounds logically grew more popular through the inflationary 1900s as the ten pound amount and banknote became more common currency in people’s wages and wallets, and therefore language. Cock and hen also gave raise to the variations cockeren, cockeren and hen, hen, and the natural rhyming slang short version, cock — all meaning ten pounds.

cockeren — ten pounds, see cock and hen.

commodore = fifteen pounds (£15). The origin is almost certainly London, and the clever and amusing derivation reflects the wit of Londoners: Cockney rhyming slang for five pounds is a ‘lady’, (from Lady Godiva = fiver); fifteen pounds is three-times five pounds (3x£5=£15); ‘Three Times a Lady’ is a song recorded by the group The Commodores; and there you have it: Three Times a Lady = fifteen pounds = a commodore. (Thanks Simon Ladd, Jun 2007)

coppers = pre-decimal farthings, ha’pennies and pennies, and to a lesser extent 1p and 2p coins since decimalisation, and also meaning a very small amount of money. Coppers was very popular slang pre-decimalisation (1971), and is still used in referring to modern pennies and two-penny coins, typically describing the copper (coloured) coins in one’s pocket or change, or piggy bank. Pre-decimal farthings, ha’pennies and pennies were 97% copper (technically bronze), and would nowadays be worth significantly more than their old face value because copper has become so much more valuable. Decimal 1p and 2p coins were also 97% copper (technically bronze — 97% copper, 2.5% zinc, 0.5% tin ) until replaced by copper-plated steel in 1992, which amusingly made them magnetic. The term coppers is also slang for a very small amount of money, or a cost of something typically less than a pound, usually referring to a bargain or a sum not worth thinking about, somewhat like saying ‘peanuts’ or ‘a row of beans’. For example: «What did you pay for that?» …… «Coppers.»

cows = a pound, 1930s, from the rhyming slang ‘cow’s licker’ = nicker (nicker means a pound). The word cows means a single pound since technically the word is cow’s, from cow’s licker.

daddler/dadla/dadler = threepenny bit (3d), and also earlier a farthing (quarter of an old penny, ¼d), from the early 1900s, based on association with the word tiddler, meaning something very small.

deaner/dena/denar/dener = a shilling (1/-), from the mid-1800s, derived from association with the many European dinar coins and similar, and derived in turn and associated with the Roman denarius coin which formed the basis of many European currencies and their names. The pronunciation emphasis tends to be on the long second syllable ‘aah’ sound. The expression is interpreted into Australian and New Zealand money slang as deener, again meaning shilling.

deep sea diver = fiver (£5), heard in use Oxfordshire (thanks Karen/Ewan) late 1990s, this is rhyming slang dating from the 1940s.

deuce = two pounds, and much earlier (from the 1600s) tuppence (two old pence, 2d), from the French deus and Latin duos meaning two (which also give us the deuce term in tennis, meaning two points needed to win).

dibs/dibbs = money. Dib was also US slang meaning $1 (one dollar), which presumably extended to more than one when pluralised. Origins of dib/dibs/dibbs are uncertain but probably relate to the old (early 1800s) children’s game of dibs or dibstones played with the knuckle-bones of sheep or pebbles. Also relates to (but not necessairly derived from) the expression especially used by children, ‘dibs’ meaning a share or claim of something, and dibbing or dipping among a group of children, to determine shares or winnings or who would be ‘it’ for a subsequent chasing game. In this sort of dipping or dibbing, a dipping rhyme would be spoken, coinciding with the pointing or touchung of players in turn, eliminating the child on the final word, for example:

• ‘dip dip sky blue who’s it not you’ (the word ‘you’ meant elimination for the corresponding child)
• ‘ibble-obble black bobble ibble obble out’ (‘out’ meant elimination)
• ‘one potato two potato three potato four
  five potato six potato seven potato more’ (‘more’ meant elimination)
  (In this final dipping/dibbing game the procedure was effectively doubled because the spoken rhythm matched the touching of each contestant’s two outstretched fists in turn with the fist of the ‘dipper’ — who incidentally included him/herself in the dipping by touching their own fists together twice, or if one of their own fists was eliminated would touch their chin. The winner or ‘it’ would be the person remaining with the last untouched fist. Players would put their fists behind their backs when touched, and interstingly I can remember that as children we would conform to the rules so diligently that our fists would remain tightly clenched behind our backs until the dipping game had finished. I guess this wouldn’t happen today because each child would need at least one hand free for holding their mobile phone and texting.)

dinarly/dinarla/dinaly = a shilling (1/-), from the mid-1800s, also transferred later to the decimal equivalent 5p piece, from the same roots that produced the ‘deaner’ shilling slang and variations, i.e., Roman denarius and then through other European dinar coins and variations. As with deanar the pronunciation emphasis tends to be on the long second syllable ‘aah’ sound.

dollar = slang for money, commonly used in singular form, eg., ‘Got any dollar?..’. In earlier times a dollar was slang for an English Crown, five shillings (5/-). From the 1900s in England and so called because the coin was similar in appearance and size to the American dollar coin, and at one time similar in value too. Brewer’s dictionary of 1870 says that the American dollar is ‘..in English money a little more than four shillings..’. That’s about 20p. The word dollar is originally derived from German ‘Thaler’, and earlier from Low German ‘dahler’, meaning a valley (from which we also got the word ‘dale’). The connection with coinage is that the Counts of Schlick in the late 1400s mined silver from ‘Joachim’s Thal’ (Joachim’s Valley), from which was minted the silver ounce coins called Joachim’s Thalers, which became standard coinage in that region of what would now be Germany. All later generic versions of the coins were called ‘Thalers’. An ‘oxford’ was cockney rhyming slang for five shillings (5/-) based on the dollar rhyming slang: ‘oxford scholar’.

dosh = slang for a reasonable amount of spending money, for instance enough for a ‘night-out’. Almost certainly and logically derived from the slang ‘doss-house’, meaning a very cheap hostel or room, from Elizabethan England when ‘doss’ was a straw bed, from ‘dossel’ meaning bundle of straw, in turn from the French ‘dossier’ meaning bundle. Dosh appears to have originated in this form in the US in the 19th century, and then re-emerged in more popular use in the UK in the mid-20th century.

doubloons = money. From the Spanish gold coins of the same name.

dough = money. From the cockney rhyming slang and metaphoric use of ‘bread’.

dunop/doonup = pound, backslang from the mid-1800s, in which the slang is created from a reversal of the word sound, rather than the spelling, hence the loose correlation to the source word.

farthing = a quarter of an old penny (¼d) — not slang, a proper word in use (in slightly different form — feorthung) since the end of the first millenium, and in this list mainly to clarify that the origin of the word is not from ‘four things’, supposedly and commonly believed from the times when coins were split to make pieces of smaller value, but actually (less excitingly) from Old English feortha, meaning fourth, corresponding to Old Frisian fiardeng, meaning a quarter of a mark, and similar Germanic words meaning four and fourth. The modern form of farthing was first recorded in English around 1280 when it altered from ferthing to farthing.

fiver = five pounds (£5), from the mid-1800s. More rarely from the early-mid 1900s fiver could also mean five thousand pounds, but arguably it remains today the most widely used slang term for five pounds.

fin/finn/finny/finnif/finnip/finnup/finnio/finnif = five pounds (£5), from the early 1800s. There are other spelling variations based on the same theme, all derived from the German and Yiddish (European/Hebrew mixture) funf, meaning five, more precisely spelled fünf. A ‘double-finnif’ (or double-fin, etc) means ten pounds; ‘half-a-fin’ (half-a-finnip, etc) would have been two pounds ten shillings (equal to £2.50).

flag = five pound note (£5), UK, notably in Manchester (ack Michael Hicks); also a USA one dollar bill; also used as a slang term for a money note in Australia although Cassells is vague about the value (if you know please contact us). The word flag has been used since the 1500s as a slang expression for various types of money, and more recently for certain notes. Originally (16th-19thC) the slang word flag was used for an English fourpenny groat coin, derived possibly from Middle Low German word ‘Vleger’ meaning a coin worth ‘more than a Bremer groat’ (Cassells). Derivation in the USA would likely also have been influenced by the slang expression ‘Jewish Flag’ or ‘Jews Flag’ for a $1 bill, from early 20th century, being an envious derogatory reference to perceived and stereotypical Jewish success in business and finance.

flim/flimsy = five pounds (£5), early 1900s, so called because of the thin and flimsy paper on which five pound notes of the time were printed.

florin/flo = a two shilling or ‘two bob’ coin (florin is actually not slang — it’s from Latin meaning flower, and a 14th century Florentine coin called the Floren). Equivalent to 10p — a tenth of a pound. A ‘flo’ is the slang shortening, meaning two shillings.

folding/folding stuff/folding money/folding green = banknotes, especially to differentiate or emphasise an amount of money as would be impractical to carry or pay in coins, typically for a night out or to settle a bill. Folding, folding stuff and folding money are all popular slang in London. Folding green is more American than UK slang. Cassells says these were first recorded in the 1930s, and suggests they all originated in the US, which might be true given that banknotes arguably entered very wide use earlier in the US than in the UK. (Thanks P Jones, June 2008)

foont/funt = a pound (£1), from the mid-1900s, derived from the German word ‘pfund’ for the UK pound.

french/french loaf = four pounds, most likely from the second half of the 1900s, cockney rhyming slang for rofe (french loaf = rofe), which is backslang for four, also meaning four pounds. Easy when you know how..

g/G = a thousand pounds. Shortening of ‘grand’ (see below). From the 1920s, and popular slang in fast-moving business, trading, the underworld, etc., until the 1970s when it was largely replaced by ‘K’. Usually retains singular form (G rather than G’s) for more than one thousand pounds, for example «Twenty G».

garden/garden gate = eight pounds (£8), cockney rhyming slang for eight, naturally extended to eight pounds. In spoken use ‘a garden’ is eight pounds. Incidentally garden gate is also rhyming slang for magistrate, and the plural garden gates is rhyming slang for rates. The word garden features strongly in London, in famous place names such as Hatton Garden, the diamond quarter in the central City of London, and Covent Garden, the site of the old vegetable market in West London, and also the term appears in sexual euphemisms, such as ‘sitting in the garden with the gate unlocked’, which refers to a careless pregnancy.

gelt/gelter = money, from the late 1600s, with roots in foreign words for gold, notably German and Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect) gelt, and Dutch and South African geld.

gen = a shilling (1/-), from the mid 1800s, either based on the word argent, meaning silver (from French and Latin, and used in English heraldry, i.e., coats of arms and shields, to refer to the colour silver), or more likely a shortening of ‘generalize’, a peculiar supposed backslang of shilling, which in its own right was certainly slang for shilling, and strangely also the verb to lend a shilling.

generalise/generalize = a shilling (1/-), from the mid 1800s, thought to be backslang. Also meant to lend a shilling, apparently used by the middle classes, presumably to avoid embarrassment. Given that backslang is based on phonetic word sound not spelling, the conversion of shilling to generalize is just about understandable, if somewhat tenuous, and in the absence of other explanation is the only known possible derivation of this odd slang.

gen net/net gen = ten shillings (1/-), backslang from the 1800s (from ‘ten gen’).

grand = a thousand pounds (£1,000 or $1,000) Not pluralised in full form. Shortened to ‘G’ (usually plural form also) or less commonly ‘G’s’. Originated in the USA in the 1920s, logically an association with the literal meaning — full or large.

greens = money, usually old-style green coloured pound notes, but actully applying to all money or cash-earnings since the slang derives from the cockney rhyming slang: ‘greengages’ (= wages).

groat = an old silver four-penny coin from around 1300 and in use in similar form until c.1662, although Brewer states in his late 1800s revised edition of his 1870 dictionary of slang that ‘the modern groat was introduced in 1835, and withdrawn in 1887’, which is somewhat confusing. Presumably there were different versions and issues of the groat coin, which seems to have been present in the coinage from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Very occasionally older people, students of English or History, etc., refer to loose change of a small amount of coin money as groats. Sadly the word is almost obsolete now, although the groat coin is kept alive in Maundy Money. The word derives from Middle English and Middle Dutch ‘groot’ meaning ‘great’ since this coin was a big one, compared to a penny. The similar German and Austrian coin was the ‘Groschen’, equivalent to 10 ‘Pfennigs’. The word can actually be traced back to Roman times, when a ‘Denarius Grossus’ was a ‘thick penny’ (equivalent).

guinea = guinea is not a slang term, it’s a proper and historical word for an amount of money equating to twenty-one shillings, or in modern sterling one pound five pence.

half, half a bar/half a sheet/half a nicker = ten shillings (10/-), from the 1900s, and to a lesser degree after decimalisation, fifty pence (50p), based on the earlier meanings of bar and sheet for a pound. Half is also used as a logical prefix for many slang words which mean a pound, to form a slang expresion for ten shillings and more recently fifty pence (50p), for example and most popularly, ‘half a nicker’, ‘half a quid’, etc. The use of the word ‘half’ alone to mean 50p seemingly never gaught on, unless anyone can confirm otherwise.

half a crown = two shillings and sixpence (2/6), and more specifically the 2/6 coin. Not actually slang, more an informal and extremely common pre-decimalisation term used as readily as ‘two-and-six’ in referring to that amount. Equivalent to 12½p in decimal money.

handbag = money, late 20th century.

handful = five pounds (£5), 20th century, derived simply by association to the five digits on a hand.

hog = confusingly a shilling (1/-) or a sixpence (6d) or a half-crown (2/6), dating back to the 1600s in relation to shilling. Hog also extended to US 10c and dollar coins, apparently, according to Cassells because coins carried a picture of a pig. I suspect different reasons for the British coins, but have yet to find them.

jack = a pound, and earlier (from the 1600s), a farthing. Perhaps based on jack meaning a small thing, although there are many possible different sources. Jack is much used in a wide variety of slang expressions.

jacks = five pounds, from cockney rhyming slang: jack’s alive = five. Not used in the singular for in this sense, for example a five pound note would be called a ‘jacks’.

job = guinea, late 1600s, probably ultimately derived from from the earlier meaning of the word job, a lump or piece (from 14th century English gobbe), which developed into the work-related meaning of job, and thereby came to have general meaning of payment for work, including specific meaning of a guinea. ‘Half a job’ was half a guinea.

joey = much debate about this: According to my information (1894 Brewer, and the modern Cassell’s, Oxford, Morton, and various other sources) Joey was originally, from 1835 or 1836 a silver fourpenny piece called a groat (Brewer is firm about this), and this meaning subsequently transferred to the silver threepenny piece (Cassell’s, Oxford, and Morton). I’m convinced these were the principal and most common usages of the Joey coin slang. Cassell’s says Joey was also used for the brass-nickel threepenny bit, which was introduced in 1937, although as a child in South London the 1960s I cannot remember the threepenny bit ever being called a Joey, and neither can my Mum or Dad, who both say a Joey in London was a silver threepence and nothing else (although they’d be too young to remember groats…). I’m informed however (ack Stuart Taylor, Dec 2006) that Joey was indeed slang for the brass-nickel threepenny bit among children of the Worcester area in the period up to decimalisation in 1971, so as ever, slang is subject to regional variation. I personally feel (and think I recall) there was some transference of the Joey slang to the sixpence (tanner) some time after the silver threepenny coin changed to the brass threepenny bit (which was during the 1930-40s), and this would have been understandable because the silver sixpence was similar to the silver threepence, albeit slightly larger. There is also a view that Joey transferred from the threepenny bit to the sixpence when the latter became a more usual minimum fare in London taxi-cabs. So although the fourpenny groat and the silver threepenny coin arguably lay the major claim to the Joey title, usage also seems to have extended to later coins, notably the silver sixpence (tanner) and the brass-nickel threepenny bit. The Joey slang word seems reasonably certainly to have been named after the politician Joseph Hume (1777-1855), who advocated successfully that the fourpenny groat be reintroduced, which it was in 1835 or 1836, chiefly to foil London cab drivers (horse driven ones in those days) in their practice of pretending not to have change, with the intention of extorting a bigger tip, particularly when given two shillings for a two-mile fare, which at the time cost one shilling and eight-pence. The re-introduction of the groat thus enabled many customers to pay the exact fare, and so the cab drivers used the term Joey as a derisory reference for the fourpenny groats.

And some further clarification and background:

• Brewer says that the ‘modern groat was introduced in 1835, and withdrawn in 1887′. He was referring to the fact that the groat’s production ceased from 1662 and then restarted in 1835, (or 1836 according to other sources). This coincides with the view that Hume re-introduced the groat to counter the cab drivers’ scam.
• Silver threepenny coins were first introduced in the mid-1500s but were not popular nor minted in any serious quantity for general circulation until around 1760, because people preferred the fourpenny groat. The silver threepence was effectively replaced with introduction of the brass-nickel threepenny bit in 1937, through to 1945, which was the last minting of the silver threepence coin. The silver threepence continued in circulation for several years after this, and I read here of someone receiving one in their change as late as 1959.
• The brass-nickel threepenny bit was minted up until 1970 and this lovely coin ceased to be legal tender at decimalisation in 1971. As a matter of interest, at the time of writing this (Nov 2004) a mint condition 1937 threepenny bit is being offered for sale by London Bloomsbury coin dealers and auctioneers Spink, with a guide price of £37,000. Wow.
• The silver sixpence was produced from 1547-1970, and remained in circulation (although by then it was a copper-based and nickel-coated coin) after decimalisation as the two-and-a-half-pee, until withdrawal in 1980.
• I was sent this additional clarification about the silver threepenny piece (thanks C Mancini, Dec 2007) provided by Joseph Payne, Assistant Curator of the Royal Mint: «… Along with the silver crown, half-crown and sixpence, the silver threepence made its first appearance in 1551 during the reign of Edward VI (1547-53). Silver threepences were last issued for circulation in the United Kingdom in 1941 but the final pieces to be sent overseas for colonial use were dated 1944. Once the issue of silver threepences in the United Kingdom had ceased there was a tendency for the coins to be hoarded and comparatively few were ever returned to the Royal Mint. The coin was not formally demonetised until 31 August 1971 at the time of decimalisation.»

k/K = a thousand (£1,000 or $1,000). From the 1960s, becoming widely used in the 1970s. Plural uses singular form. ‘K’ has now mainly replaced ‘G’ in common speech and especially among middle and professional classes. While some etymology sources suggest that ‘k’ (obviously pronounced ‘kay’) is from business-speak and underworld language derived from the K abbreviation of kilograms, kilometres, I am inclined to prefer the derivation (suggested to me by Terry Davies) that K instead originates from computer-speak in the early 1970s, from the abbreviation of kilobytes. For Terry’s detailed and fascinating explanation of the history of K see the ‘ K’ entry on the cliches and words origins page.

kibosh/kybosh = eighteen pence (i.e., one and six, 1/6, one shilling and sixpence), related to and perhaps derived from the mid-1900s meaning of kibosh for an eighteen month prison sentence. Cassells implies an interesting possible combination of the meanings kibosh (18 month sentence), kibosh (meaning ruin or destroy) — both probably derived from Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect) words meaning suppress — with the linking of money and hitting something, as in ‘a fourpenny one’ (from rhyming slang fourpenny bit = hit). All very vague and confusing. Whatever, kibosh meant a shilling and sixpence (1/6). Like so much slang, kibosh trips off the tongue easily and amusingly, which would encourage the extension of its use from prison term to money.

kick = sixpence (6d), from the early 1700s, derived purely from the lose rhyming with six (not cockney rhyming slang), extending to and possible preceded and prompted by the slang expression ‘two and a kick’ meaning half a crown, i.e., two shillings and sixpence, commonly expressed as ‘two and six’, which is a more understandable association.

knicker = distortion of ‘nicker’, meaning £1. See entry under ‘nicker’. See also ‘pair of knickers’.

lady/Lady Godiva = fiver (five pounds, £5) cockney rhyming slang, and like many others in this listing is popular in London and the South East of England, especially East London. (Thanks Simon Ladd, June 2007)

lolly = money. More popular in the 1960s than today. Precise origin unknown. Possibly rhyming slang linking lollipop to copper.

long-tailed ‘un/long-tailed finnip = high value note, from the 1800s and in use to the late 1900s. Earlier ‘long-tailed finnip’ meant more specifically ten pounds, since a finnip was five pounds (see fin/finny/finnip) from Yiddish funf meaning five. There seems no explanation for long-tailed other than being a reference to extended or larger value.

macaroni = twenty-five pounds (£25). Cockney rhyming slang for pony.

madza caroon = half-a-crown (2/6) from the mid 1800s. A combination of medza, a corruption of Italian mezzo meaning half, and a mispronunciation or interpretation of crown. Madza caroon is an example of ‘ligua franca’ slang which in this context means langauge used or influenced by foreigners or immigrants, like a sort of pidgin or hybrid English-foreign slang, in this case mixed with Italian, which logically implies that much of the early usage was in the English Italian communities. Mezzo/madza was and is potentially confused with, and popularity supported by, the similar ‘motsa’ (see motsa entry).

madza poona = half-sovereign, from the mid 1800s, for the same reasons as madza caroon.

maggie/brass maggie = a pound coin (£1) — apparently used in South Yorkshire UK — the story is that the slang was adopted during the extremely acrimonious and prolonged miners’ strike of 1984 which coincided with the introduction of the pound coin. Margaret Thatcher acted firmly and ruthlessly in resisting the efforts of the miners and the unions to save the pit jobs and the British coalmining industry, reinforcing her reputation for exercising the full powers of the state, creating resentment among many. When the pound coin appeared it was immediately christened a ‘Maggie’, based seemingly on the notion that it was ‘…a brassy piece that thinks it’s a sovereign…» (ack J Jamieson, Sep 2007) If you have more detail about where and when this slang arose and is used, please let me know. I am grateful to J Briggs for confirming (March 2008): «…I live in Penistone, South Yorks (what we call the West Riding) and it was certainly called a ‘Brass Maggie’ in my area. Typically in a derisive way, such as ‘I wouldn’t give you a brass maggie for that’ for something overpriced but low value. It never really caught on and has died out now…»

marygold/marigold = a million pounds (£1,000,000). English slang referenced by Brewer in 1870, origin unclear, possibly related to the Virgin Mary, and a style of church windows featuring her image.

McGarrett = fifty pounds (£50). Initially London slang, especially for a fifty pound note. McGarret refers cunningly and amusingly to the popular US TV crime series Hawaii Five-0 and its fictional head detective Steve McGarrett, played by Jack Lord. The series was made and aired originally between 1968 and 1980 and developed a lasting cult following, not least due to the very cool appeal of the McGarrett character. Steve McGarrett was given the legendary line (every week virtually) «Book ’em Danno,» — or «Book him Danno,» — depending on the number of baddies they caught. Danno (Detective Danny Williams, played by James MacArthur) was McGarrett’s unfailingly loyal junior partner. For the record, the other detectives were called Chin Ho Kelly (the old guy) and Kono Kalakaua (the big guy), played by Kam Fong and Zulu, both of which seem far better character names, but that’s really the way it was. (Thanks L Cunliffe)

medza/medzer/medzes/medzies/metzes/midzers = money. Other variations occur, including the misunderstanding of these to be ‘measures’, which has become slang for money in its own right. These slang words for money are most likely derived from the older use of the word madza, absorbed into English from Italian mezzo meaning half, which was used as a prefix in referring to half-units of coinage (and weights), notably medza caroon (half-crown), madza poona (half-sovereign) and by itself, medza meaning a ha’penny (½d). Potentially confused with and supported by the origins and use of similar motsa (see motsa entry).

measures = money, late 20th century, most likely arising from misunderstanding medzas and similar variants, particularly medza caroon (hal-crown) and medza meaning a half-penny (ha’penny, i.e., ½d).

mill = a million dollars or a million pounds. Interestingly mill is also a non-slang technical term for a tenth of a USA cent, or one-thousandth of a dollar, which is an accounts term only — there is no coinage for such an amount. The word mill is derived simply from the Latin ‘millisimus’ meaning a thousandth, and is not anything to do with the milled edge of a coin.

monkey = five hundred pounds (£500). Probably London slang from the early 1800s. Origin unknown. Like the ‘pony’ meaning £25, it is suggested by some that the association derives from Indian rupee banknotes featuring the animal.

moola = money. Variations on the same theme are moolah, mola, mulla. Modern slang from London, apparently originating in the USA in the 1930s. Probably related to ‘motsa’ below.

motsa/motsah/motzer = money. Popular Australian slang for money, now being adopted elsewhere. Variations on the same theme are motser, motzer, motza, all from the Yiddish (Jewish European/Hebrew dialect) word ‘matzah’, the unleavened bread originally shaped like a large flat disk, but now more commonly square (for easier packaging and shipping), eaten at Passover, which suggests earliest origins could have been where Jewish communities connected with English speakers, eg., New York or London (thanks G Kahl). Popularity is supported (and probably confused also) with ‘lingua franca’ medza/madza and the many variations around these, which probably originated from a different source, namely the Italian mezzo, meaning half (as in madza poona = half sovereign).

ned = a guinea. A slang word used in Britain and chiefly London from around 1750-1850. Ned was seemingly not pluralised when referring to a number of guineas, eg., ‘It’ll cost you ten ned..’ A half-ned was half a guinea. The slang ned appears in at least one of Bruce Alexander’s Blind Justice series of books (thanks P Bostock for raising this) set in London’s Covent Garden area and a period of George III’s reign from around 1760 onwards. It is conceivable that the use also later transferred for a while to a soverign and a pound, being similar currency units, although I’m not aware of specific evidence of this. The ned slang word certainly transferred to America, around 1850, and apparently was used up to the 1920s. In the US a ned was a ten dollar gold coin, and a half-ned was a five dollar coin. Precise origin of the word ned is uncertain although it is connected indirectly (by Chambers and Cassells for example) with a straightforward rhyming slang for the word head (conventional ockney rhyming slang is slightly more complex than this), which seems plausible given that the monarch’s head appeared on guinea coins. Ned was traditionally used as a generic name for a man around these times, as evidenced by its meaning extending to a thuggish man or youth, or a petty criminal (US), and also a reference (mainly in the US) to the devil, (old Ned, raising merry Ned, etc). These, and the rhyming head connection, are not factual origins of how ned became a slang money term; they are merely suggestions of possible usage origin and/or reinforcement.

net gen = ten shillings (10/-), backslang, see gen net.

nevis/neves = seven pounds (£7), 20th century backslang, and earlier, 1800s (usually as ‘nevis gens’) seven shillings (7/-).

nicker = a pound (£1). Not pluralised for a number of pounds, eg., ‘It cost me twenty nicker..’ From the early 1900s, London slang, precise origin unknown. Possibly connected to the use of nickel in the minting of coins, and to the American slang use of nickel to mean a $5 dollar note, which at the late 1800s was valued not far from a pound. In the US a nickel is more commonly a five cent coin. A nicker bit is a one pound coin, and London cockney rhyming slang uses the expression ‘nicker bits’ to describe a case of diarrhoea.

nugget/nuggets = a pound coin (£1) or money generally. The older nuggets meaning of money obviously alludes to gold nuggets and appeared first in the 1800s. Much more recently (thanks G Hudson) logically since the pound coin was introduced in the UK in the 1990s with the pound note’s withdrawal, nugget seems to have appeared as a specific term for a pound coin, presumably because the pound coin is golden (actually more brassy than gold) and ‘nuggety’ in feel.

oner = (pronounced ‘wunner’), commonly now meaning one hundred pounds; sometimes one thousand pounds, depending on context. In the 1800s a oner was normally a shilling, and in the early 1900s a oner was one pound.

oncer = (pronounced ‘wunser’), a pound , and a simple variation of ‘oner’. From the early 1900s, and like many of these slang words popular among Londoners (ack K Collard) from whom such terms spread notably via City traders and also the armed forces during the 2nd World War.

oxford = five shillings (5/-), also called a crown, from cockney rhyming slang oxford scholar = dollar, dollar being slang for a crown.

pair of nickers/pair of knickers/pair o’nickers = two pounds (£2), an irresistible pun.

plum = One hundred thousand pounds (£100,000). As referenced by Brewer in 1870. Seemingly no longer used. Origin unknown, although I received an interesting suggestion (thanks Giles Simmons, March 2007) of a possible connection with Jack Horner’s plum in the nursery rhyme. The Jack Horner nursery rhyme is seemingly based on the story of Jack Horner, a steward to the Bishop of Glastonbury at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries (16th century), who was sent to Henry VIII with a bribe consisting of the deeds to twelve important properties in the area. Horner, so the story goes, believing the bribe to be a waste of time, kept for himself the best (the ‘plum’) of these properties, Mells Manor (near Mells, Frome, Somerset), in which apparently Horner’s descendents still lived until quite recently. The Bishop was not so fortunate — he was hung drawn and quartered for remaining loyal to the Pope.

pony = twenty-five pounds (£25). From the late 18th century according to most sources, London slang, but the precise origin is not known. Also expressed in cockney rhying slang as ‘macaroni’. It is suggested by some that the pony slang for £25 derives from the typical price paid for a small horse, but in those times £25 would have been an unusually high price for a pony. Others have suggested that an Indian twenty-five rupee banknote featured a pony. Another suggestion (Ack P Bessell) is that pony might derive from the Latin words ‘legem pone’, which (according to the etymology source emtymonline.com) means, «…….. ‘payment of money, cash down,’ [which interpretation apparently first appeared in] 1573, from first two words [and also the subtitle] of the fifth division of Psalm cxix [Psalm 119, verses 33 to 48, from the Bible’s Old Testament], which begins the psalms at Matins on the 25th of the month; consequently associated with March 25, a quarter day in the old financial calendar, when payments and debts came due….» The words ‘Legem pone’ do not translate literally into monetary meaning, in the Psalm they words actully seem to equate to ‘Teach me..’ which is the corresponding phrase in the King James edition of the Bible. Other suggestions connecting the word pony with money include the Old German word ‘poniren’ meaning to pay, and a strange expression from the early 1800s, «There’s no touching her, even for a poney [sic],» which apparently referred to a widow, Mrs Robinson, both of which appear in a collection of ‘answers to correspondents’ sent by readers and published by the Daily Mail in the 1990s.

poppy = money. Cockney rhyming slang, from ‘poppy red’ = bread, in turn from ‘bread and honey’ = money.

quarter = five shillings (5/-) from the 1800s, meaning a quarter of a pound. More recently (1900s) the slang ‘a quarter’ has transfered to twenty-five pounds.

quid = one pound (£1) or a number of pounds sterling. Plural uses singular form, eg., ‘Fifteen quid is all I want for it..’, or ‘I won five hundred quid on the horses yesterday..’. The slang money expression ‘quid’ seems first to have appeared in late 1600s England, derived from Latin (quid meaning ‘what’, as in ‘quid pro quo’ — ‘something for something else’). Other intriguing possible origins/influences include a suggested connection with the highly secretive Quidhampton banknote paper-mill, and the term quid as applied (ack D Murray) to chewing tobacco, which are explained in more detail under quid in the cliches, words and slang page.

readies = money, usually banknotes. Simply derived from the expression ‘ready cash’.

saucepan = a pound, late 1800s, cockney rhyming slang: saucepan lid = quid.

score = twenty pounds (£20). From the 1900s, simply from the word ‘score’ meaning twenty, derived apparently from the ancient practice of counting sheep in lots of twenty, and keeping tally by cutting (‘scoring’) notches into a stick.

shekels/sheckles = money. Not always, but often refers to money in coins, and can also refer to riches or wealth. From the Hebrew word and Israeli monetary unit ‘shekel’ derived in Hebrew from the silver coin ‘sekel’ in turn from the word for weight ‘sakal’.

seymour = salary of £100,000 a year — media industry slang — named after Geoff Seymour (1947-2009) the advertising copywriter said to have been the first in his profession to command such a wage. Seymour created the classic 1973 Hovis TV advert featuring the baker’s boy delivering bread from a bike on an old cobbled hill in a North England town, to the theme of Dvorak’s New World symphony played by a brass band. The actual setting was in fact Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Incidentally the Hovis bakery was founded in 1886 and the Hovis name derives from Latin, Hominis Vis, meaning ‘strength of man’. The 1973 advert’s artistic director was Ridley Scott.

shilling = a silver or silver coloured coin worth twelve pre-decimalisation pennies (12d). From Old High German ‘skilling’. Similar words for coins and meanings are found all over Europe. The original derivation was either from Proto-Germanic ‘skell’ meaning to sound or ring, or Indo-European ‘skell’ split or divide. Some think the root might be from Proto-Germanic ‘skeld’, meaning shield.

shrapnel = loose change, especially a heavy and inconvenient pocketful, as when someone repays a small loan in lots of coins. The expression came into use with this meaning when wartime sensitivities subsided around 1960-70s. Shrapnel conventionally means artillery shell fragments, so called from the 2nd World War, after the inventor of the original shrapnel shell, Henry Shrapnel, who devised a shell filled with pellets and explosive powder c.1806.

sick squid = six pounds (£6), from the late 20th century joke — see squid.

silver = silver coloured coins, typically a handful or piggy-bankful of different ones — i.e., a mixture of 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p. Commonly used in speech as ‘some silver’ or ‘any silver’, for example: «Have you got any silver for the car-park?» or What tip shall we leave?» … «Some silver will do.» In fact ‘silver’ coins are now made of cupro-nickel 75% copper, 25% nickel (the 20p being 84% and 16% for some reason). The slang term ‘silver’ in relation to monetary value has changed through time, since silver coins used to be far more valuable. In fact arguably the modern term ‘silver’ equates in value to ‘coppers’ of a couple of generations ago. Silver featured strongly in the earliest history of British money, so it’s pleasing that the word still occurs in modern money slang. Interestingly also, pre-decimal coins (e.g., shillings, florins, sixpences) were minted in virtually solid silver up until 1920, when they were reduced to a still impressive 50% silver content. The modern 75% copper 25% nickel composition was introduced in 1947. Changes in coin composition necessarily have to stay ahead of economic attractions offered by the scrap metal trade. It is therefore only a matter of time before modern ‘silver’ copper-based coins have to be made of less valuable metals, upon which provided they remain silver coloured I expect only the scrap metal dealers will notice the difference.

simon = sixpence (6d). The sixpenny piece used to be known long ago as a ‘simon’, possibly (ack L Bamford) through reference to the 17th century engraver at the Royal Mint, Thomas Simon. There has been speculation among etymologists that ‘simon’ meaning sixpence derives from an old play on words which represented biblical text that St Peter «…lodged with Simon a tanner..» as a description of a banking transaction, although Partridge’s esteemed dictionary refutes this, at the same time conceding that the slang ‘tanner’ for sixpence might have developed or been reinforced by the old joke. See ‘tanner’ below.

sir isaac = one pound (£1) — used in Hampshire (Southern England) apparently originating from the time when the one pound note carried a picture of Sir Isaac Newton. (Thanks M Ty-Wharton).

sky/sky diver = five pounds (£5), 20th century cockney rhyming slang.

smackers/smackeroos = pounds (or dollars) — in recent times not usually used in referring to a single £1 or a low amount, instead usually a hundred or several hundreds, but probably not several thousands, when grand would be preferred. Smackers (1920s) and smackeroos (1940s) are probably US extensions of the earlier English slang smack/smacks (1800s) meaning a pound note/notes, which Cassells slang dictionary suggests might be derived from the notion of smacking notes down onto a table.

sobs = pounds. Mispronunciation of sovs, short for sovereigns. An example of erroneous language becoming real actual language through common use. (Thanks to R Maguire for raising this one.)

sovs = pounds. Short for sovereigns — very old gold and the original one pound coins. For example ‘Lend us twenty sovs..’ Sov is not generally used in the singular for one pound. Mispronounced by some as ‘sobs’.

spondulicks/spondoolicks = money. Pronunciation emphasises the long ‘doo’ sound. Various other spellings, e.g., spondulacks, spondulics. Normally refers to notes and a reasonable amount of spending money. The spondulicks slang can be traced back to the mid-1800s in England (source: Cassells), but is almost certainly much older. Spondoolicks is possibly from Greek, according to Cassells — from spondulox, a type of shell used for early money. Cassells also suggests possible connection with ‘spondylo-‘ referring to spine or vertebrae, based on the similarity between a stack of coins and a spine, which is referenced in etymologist Michael Quinion’s corespondence with a Doug Wilson, which cites the reference to piled coins (and thereby perhaps the link to sponylo/spine) thus: «Spondulics — coin piled for counting…» from the 1867 book A Manual of the Art of Prose Composition: For the Use of Colleges and Schools, by John Mitchell Bonnell. (Thanks R Maguire for prompting more detail for this one.)

sprazi/sprazzy = sixpence (6d). A variation of sprat, see below.

sprat/spratt = sixpence (6d). From the 1800s, by association with the small fish.

squid = a pound (£1). Not normally pluralised, still expressed as ‘squid’, not squids, e.g., ‘Fifty squid’. The most likely origin of this slang expression is from the joke (circa 1960-70s) about a shark who meets his friend the whale one day, and says, «I’m glad I bumped into you — here’s that sick squid I owe you..»

stiver/stuiver/stuyver = an old penny (1d). Stiver also earlier referred to any low value coin. Stiver was used in English slang from the mid 1700s through to the 1900s, and was derived from the Dutch Stiver coin issued by the East India Company in the Cape (of South Africa), which was the lowest East India Co monetary unit. There were twenty Stivers to the East India Co florin or gulden, which was then equal to just over an English old penny (1d). (source Cassells)

strike = a sovereign (early 1700s) and later, a pound, based on the coin minting process which is called ‘striking’ a coin, so called because of the stamping process used in making coins.

tanner = sixpence (6d). The slang word ‘tanner’ meaning sixpence dates from the early 1800s and is derived most probably from Romany gypsy ‘tawno’ meaning small one, and Italian ‘danaro’ meaning small change. The ‘tanner’ slang was later reinforced (Ack L Bamford) via jocular reference to a biblical extract about St Peter lodging with Simon, a tanner (of hides). The biblical text (from Acts chapter 10 verse 6) is: «He (Peter) lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side..», which was construed by jokers as banking transaction instead of a reference to overnight accommodation. Nick Ratnieks suggests the tanner was named after a Master of the Mint of that name. A further suggestion (ack S Kopec) refers to sixpence being connected with pricing in the leather trade. An obscure point of nostalgic trivia about the tanner is apparently (thanks J Veitch) a rhyme, from around the mid-1900s, sung to the tune of Rule Britannia: «Rule Brittania, two tanners make a bob, three make eighteen pence and four two bob…» My limited research suggests this rhyme was not from London.

tenner — ten pounds (£10).

ten bob bit = fifty pence piece (50p). A rare example of money slang from more recent times, even though it draws from the pre-decimal slang, since the term refers to ten shillings (equivalent to 50p) and alludes to the angular shape of the old theepenny bit.

thick’un/thick one = a crown (5/-) or a sovereign, from the mid 1800s.

three ha’pence/three haypence = 1½d (one and a half old pennies) — this lovely expression (thanks Dean) did not survive decimalisation, despite there being new decimal half-pence coins. In fact the term was obsolete before 1971 decimalisation when the old ha’penny (½d) was removed from the currency in 1969.

tickey/ticky/tickie/tiki/tikki/tikkie = ticky or tickey was an old pre-decimal British silver threepenny piece (3d, equating loosely to 1¼p). The tickey slang was in use in 1950s UK (in Birmingham for example, thanks M Bramich), although the slang is more popular in South Africa, from which the British usage seems derived. In South Africa the various spellings refer to a SA threepenny piece, and now the equivalent SA post-decimalisation 2½ cents coin. South African tickey and variations — also meaning ‘small’ — are first recorded in the 19th century from uncertain roots (according to Partridge and Cassells) — take your pick: African distorted interpretation of ‘ticket’ or ‘threepenny’; from Romany tikeno and tikno (meaning small); from Dutch stukje (meaning a little bit); from Hindustani taka (a stamped silver coin); and/or from early Portuguese ‘pataca’ and French ‘patac’ (meaning what?.. Partridge doesn’t say).

tom/tom mix = six pounds (£6), 20th century cockney rhyming slang, (Tom Mix = six). Tom Mix was a famous cowboy film star from 1910-1940. Tom Mix initially meant the number six (and also fix, as in difficult situation or state of affairs), and extended later in the 1900s to mean six pounds.

ton = commonly one hundred pounds (£100). Not generally pluralised. From the fact that a ton is a measurement of 100 cubic feet of capacity (for storage, loading, etc). In the same way a ton is also slang for 100 runs in cricket, or a speed of 100 miles per hour. Logically ‘half a ton’ is slang for £50.

tony benn — ten pounds (£10), or a ten pound note — cockney rhyming slang derived from the Labour MP and government minister Anthony Wedgwood Benn, popularly known as Tony Benn. Tony Benn (born 1925) served in the Wilson and Callaghan governments of the 1960s and 70s, and as an MP from 1950-2001, after which he remains (at time of writing this, Feb 2008) a hugely significant figure in socialist ideals and politics, and a very wise and impressive man.

tosheroon/tusheroon/tosh/tush/tusseroon = half-a-crown (2/6) from the mid-1900s, and rarely also slang for a crown (5/-), most likely based in some way on madza caroon (‘lingua franca’ from mezzo crown), perhaps because of the rhyming, or some lost cockney rhyming rationale.

tray/trey = three pounds, and earlier threpence (thruppeny bit, 3d), ultimately from the Latin tres meaning three, and especially from the use of tray and trey for the number three in cards and dice games.

two and a kick = half a crown (2/6), from the early 1700s, based on the basic (not cockney) rhyming with ‘two and six’.

wad = money. Usually meaning a large amount of spending money held by a person when out enjoying themselves. London slang from the 1980s, derived simply from the allusion to a thick wad of banknotes. Popularity of this slang word was increased by comedian Harry Enfield.

wedge = nowadays ‘a wedge’ a pay-packet amount of money, although the expression is apparently from a very long time ago when coins were actually cut into wedge-shaped pieces to create smaller money units.

wonga = money. Less common variations on the same theme: wamba, wanga, or womba. Modern London slang. Probably from Romany gypsy ‘wanga’ meaning coal. The large Australian ‘wonga’ pigeon is almost certainly unrelated…

yennep/yenep/yennap/yennop = a penny (1d particularly, although also means a decimal penny, 1p). Yennep is backslang. Backslang evolved for similar reasons as cockney rhyming slang, i.e., to enable private or secret conversation among a particular community, which in the case of backslang is generally thought initially to have been street and market traders, notably butchers and greengrocers. Backslang essentially entails reversing the sound of the word, not the strict spelling, as you can see from the yennep example. Yennep backslang seems first to have appeared along with the general use of backslang in certain communities in the 1800s.

yennaps/yennups = money. Originated in the 1800s from the backslang for penny. See yennep.

Reprinted with permission from Business Balls.

Как только в русском языке не называют деньги: «зеленые», «бабки», «убитые еноты», «полтинник», «червонец», «стольник», «лимон», «штука», «косарь».

Английский сленг не отстает от русского в генерации все новых обозначений денег. Считается, что больше сленговых словечек существует только для обозначения выпивки и девушек. Так как ни первое, ни второе без денег не получить, стоит внимательнее изучить британский и американский «денежный» сленг.

Rhino – в Великобритании наличные деньги (англ. ready money) уже не меньше трех веков в повседневном общении называются rhino. Согласно одной теории, это сленговое слово происходит от значения английской идиомы «to pay through the nose» – “переплатить, заплатить огромные деньги”. Корень rhino- пришел в английский из греческого языка и означает “нос” (вспомните rhinoceros – носорог). Пути разговорного языка неисповедимы, поэтому «греческий нос» и «идиоматический нос» слились в одном сленговом слове.

Readies = cash. Происходит от уже упомянутых ready money — наличные деньги, которые всегда под рукой.

Bees (bees and honey) = money. Этим сленговым словом британцы обязаны рифмованному сленгу кокни, появившемуся в лондонском Ист-Энде в 16 веке. Сленг кокни — своеобразный код, в котором обычное слово заменяется целой или сокращенной формой фразы, которая рифмуется с этим словом. Еще одно сленговое название денег – bread – произошло от второго варианта этой рифмы – ‘bread and honey’ = money. Еще одно сленговое обозначение денег – dough (дословно «тесто») – тоже произошло из-за «хлебных» ассоциаций.

Dosh – сленговое обозначение суммы денег, достаточной, например, для того, чтобы повеселиться в пятницу вечером. Происходит от сленгового понятия doss-house — очень дешевый хостел. Слово doss появилось в Англии времен Елизаветы I и означало койку с соломенным матрасом в ночлежном доме.

K/k = a thousand (£1,000 or $1,000). Обозначение тысячного количества чего-либо с помощью буквы K происходит от греческой приставки kilo- «тысяча».

Filthy lucre — презренный металл, деньги, нажитые нечестным путем, от латинского lucrum «материальная прибыль, нажива».

Dollar – в британском сленге в единственном числе используется как синоним money: ‘Got any dollar?..’ Само слово dollar происходит от немецкого Thaler «талер». В нижненемецких диалектах оно превратилось в daler, и в таком виде попало в английский язык.

Cabbage – не только русским, но и американцам свернутые рулоном стодолларовые банкноты напоминают кочан капусты. Более утонченные лондонцы могут использовать lettuce (салат-латук), а американцы – kale (листовая капуста).

Greens = money. В прошлом зелеными были купюры не только американской, но и британской валюты. Как обычно, без рифмованного сленга кокни и здесь не обошлось:: ‘greengages’ (= wages).

Folding/folding stuff/folding green – банкноты, которые можно сложить (to fold) и убрать в карман.

Shrapnel (дословно «шрапнель») – большое количество мелочи.

Brass — медяки, мелкие деньги, мелочь. В британский сленг это слово вошло еще в 16 веке. До сих пор используется и выражение “Where there’s muck there’s brass” со значением «Если ты не брезглив, деньги можно делать на всем».

Oner (one-er) — сто фунтов (£100).

Grand — тысяча фунтов (£1000).

Quid – один фунт (£1). В разговорной речи это слово не изменяется по числам: ‘Fifteen quid is all I want for it.’, ‘Could you lend me twenty quid, mate?’. В сленг это слово пришло в начале 17 века из латинского языка: quid pro quo — — фразеологизм, обычно используемый в английском языке в значении «услуга за услугу» («give and take», «tit for tat», and «you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours»).

Jack – один фунт (£1). Слово переселилось через океан из британского сленга в американский и вошло в такие разговорные американские выражения, как ‘a piece of jack’ — мелкая разменная монетка и ‘to make one’s jack’ — хорошо заработать.

Nugget — один фунт (£1). Сленговое слово происходит от gold nugget – золотой самородок.

Deuce – два фунта (£2). Происходит от французского deux и латинского duos – «два».

Bender – шесть пенсов. Корни слова уходят в 1800-ые годы, когда монеты изготавливались из чистого серебра, и, чтобы проверить их подлинность, в порядке вещей было их сгибать (to bend) или даже кусать: монеты из чистого серебра были мягче и гнулись легче, чем подделки.

Bob – один шиллинг. В прошлом словом bob назывались посиделки в пабе в складчину, когда каждый платил по шиллингу за напитки всей компании.

Chip — один шиллинг. Происходит от chips — фишек, которые используются на тотализаторе на скачках и в азартных играх.

Deaner/dena/denar/dener – по различным теориям, происходит и от dinar — динар , денежная единица Сербии, а также ряда стран Азии и Африки, и от denarius – динарий, древнеримская серебряная монета.

Pony — 25 фунтов (£25). В сленге это слово появилось в 1870-ых годах, в связи с британской колонизацией Индии. На банкноте в 25 индийских рупий была изображена лошадь или пони.

Самое интересное происходит, когда одно сленговое слово происходит от другого. Сейчас 25 фунтов также называют macaroni – по версии лондонских кокни, это рифма к вышеупомянутому pony.

Monkey – 500 фунтов (£500). В сленге появилось в начале 19 века, когда Великобритания была в расцвете своего колониального владычества. По одной из версий, monkey, как и сленговое pony, произошло от индийских рупий, на которых были изображены животные.

Frogskin (дословно «лягушачья шкурка») – зеленая банкнота в один доллар.

C-note – банкнота в 100 долларов. C – римская цифра 100, её латинское обозначение – centum.

Sawbuck — банкнота в 10 долларов. По мнению американцев, римская цифра 10 – X — напоминает по форме козлы для пилки дров.

Medza/medzer/medzes/medzies/metzes/midzers = money. Искаженное итальянское слово mezzo «половина».

Loot (дословно «добыча, награбленное добро, трофеи») – деньги, заработанные явно нечестным путем.

Bung — наличные, которые даются в виде взятки. Происходит от древнеанглийского pung – карман, кошелек.

Wad — пачка бумажных денег. Если кто-то неохотно расстается с деньгами, его не преминут назвать “tightwad”.

Mad duckets – огромная сумма денег. Сленговое ducket – это искаженное ducat «дукат», старинная монета, бывшая в обращении в Европе с XII века.

P.S. Правильный ответ в тесте про сленговое выражение toffee-nosed, о котором мы рассказывали на прошлой неделе – вариант A.

Money makes the world go round. Money is probably one of the most important things in the world. Though it cannot bring you true happiness, you can still do a lot with some cold hard cash. Remember that you should never be too greedy, but you should also know never to be too selfless, especially with money. Now, we have compiled some slang words for money, which you may find very interesting. Thank you for reading and sharing!