> >> re-introduces. The Maria-Theresa thaler was widespread in Africa for > >> centuries. You can still see them used as pendants; I have one which > I > >> bought in Ethiopia in 1998, a lovely thing it is. The word 'thaler' > evolved > >> into the word 'dollar'. > > > > Way back when, a monetary unit in Norway was "riks-daler". Apparently > > stemming from the same thaler. > > Which of course would be Emmenthaler =) > Serious though the Thalers got their name from the first ever one, > formally known as one Guldengroschen, i.e. a copper piece representing > one tenth of the value of one guilder, i.e. a standard gold coin of > the time, which was produced in a mint in the city of Joachimsthal, > hence being called the Joachimsthaler Guldengroschen (there were > others in other regions and of different provenience) or for short the > Joachimsthaler and later simply Thaler. The name is really a rather > profane abbreviation but it certainly has made its way. Now if > Switzerland would just update their game and introduce the > Emmendollar... > Cheers > Ecke
And we should start referring to Neanderdollar Man. There is an interesting (if you like this sort of thing) circularity in the word Neanderthal. Neanderthal is the Neander Valley. 'Neander' is an invented word made up by a chap called Neumann which in English is New Man. He Greekified it into Neo (new) Andros (man) - Neander - after a fashion of the 15th/16th century... And isn't it entirely appropriate that it was in his valley that we found the New Man - the Neanderthaler! Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
