Ancient Rome
Silver was minted near the temple of 'Juno Moneta' on a hill.
Rome's mint was located in the temple.
WORDS
The Temple at the Root of Money
The English word "money" and the French "monnaie" both have their roots in the name of a single temple that stood on a Roman hill.
The Word 'Money' in 3 Minutes
1See it
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Later on
'Moneta' came to mean the place where money was made.
Then
And then, it came to mean money itself.
Today
The English word 'money' and the French 'monnaie' are both descendants of this name.
Also
There are many other cases where places, tools, or weights became the name for money.
'Bank' comes from the money changer's bench. 'Peso' is a word for weight.
Going further back
It's not certain why the goddess was called Moneta.
Understanding word origins
We sort word origins onto three shelves: Confirmed, Likely, and Unverified.
2What would you do?
A friend tells you, 'The word salary comes from the salt that was given as pay.' How would you pass this story on to someone else?
Pick one
Just repeat it as fact, saying 'That's what I heard.'
This is a famous story, but NOMISMA's materials can't back it up. It's a story that belongs on the 'Unverified' shelf.
Say 'That's the story,' and mention which shelf it's on.
This is the way we do it at NOMISMA. We don't say 'It's confirmed' and 'It is said' with the same level of certainty.
The path from 'Moneta' to 'money' can be placed on the 'Confirmed' shelf. At the root of the world's 'money,' there is a single temple in Rome.
3Read more
The Roman mint was located in the Temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitoline Hill. Silver was struck beside the temple.
In time, the word "Moneta" came to refer to the mint itself. Then, it came to mean the coinage itself.
The English "money" and the French "monnaie" are both descendants of this temple's name.
When a Place's Name Becomes an Object's Name
The path of the word is simple: the name of the temple, then the name of the workshop located there, and finally the name of the thing made there. The place gave the object its name.
Other examples of this pattern exist. The word "bank" comes from the bench used by money changers. The "dollar" is a descendant of the "thaler," a large silver coin struck in Joachim's Valley (Joachimsthal) in Bohemia. The "peso" was simply a word meaning "weight."
The names of currencies are often fossils of a place, a tool, or a weight.
Who Was Moneta?
Regarding the "Moneta" in Juno Moneta, it is said to mean "the one who warns."
However, NOMISMA's materials do not verify anything beyond this point. This is because we do not have a definitive answer as to why the goddess was given this name. The origin of an origin is usually shrouded in obscurity.
Etymology Requires Three Shelves
NOMISMA's linguistics course treats etymologies by sorting them onto three shelves:
- The "Confirmed" shelf: Those that can be traced through a continuous documentary record. From *banco* to bank, from thaler to dollar, that peso means weight.
- The "Probable" shelf: Those that are considered likely but have multiple competing theories, such as the origin of the dollar sign.
- The "Unverified" shelf: Famous etymological tales, like "salary" coming from payments in salt, that are not substantiated by NOMISMA's materials.
The path from Moneta to "money" can be placed on the first shelf. The origin of Moneta itself cannot. Even for a single word, the shelves can be different.
Cite by the Shelf's Name
Etymology is a first-rate historical source. At the same time, it is a breeding ground for popular theories passed down without verification.
That is why we cite by the shelf's name. We do not say "it has been confirmed" and "it is said" in the same tone. This simple distinction transforms pub trivia into a citation of historical sources.
At the root of the word for "money" around the world lies a single Roman temple. This sentence can be placed on the "Confirmed" shelf.
MORE
More in The origin of words
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Gulden, the Name of a Coin That Was Once an Adjective
Originally an adjective meaning 'golden,' the name Gulden detached from its metallic origin, eventually becoming a unit of account in ledgers and shaping the history of a currency.
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A System for Sharing Risk and Sharing Profit
On voyages where some ships might not return, a system for sharing risk was needed. Investing a little in one ship, and spreading investments across many. This idea would later form the backbone of the joint-stock company and grow into a pillar of modern finance.
Mitsuru Hayama
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