In a Word: The First Dollar | The Saturday Evening Post
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To break from the British pound sterling, America chose a word with Bohemian roots.
  • Anomalocaris@lemm.eeEnglish
    671·
    2 days ago

    there was a silver mine in a town named Joachimsthal (The valley of Joachim who was Jesus’s grandpa).

    they minted coins which were named Joachimsthaler in singular.

    the name was eventually bastardised into Thaler or dollar.

    y’all welcome

    • hsdkfr734r@feddit.nlEnglish
      221·
      2 days ago

      Joachimsthaller

      Please don’t. One L is enough. …It is complicated: Joachimsthaler (Joachimstaler since the 1900s). Thank you. ;)

      TIL that the original meaning of the word Taler is “from the valley” (Tal).

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
    37·
    2 days ago

    So the dollar goes back to a German expression and Marxism also originated in Germany. How ironic that the country was forcefully split with both systems competing against each other. History really does rhyme quite often.