Some of you probably know this, but I just found out that the Romans called money 'Pecunia', derived from 'Pecus' meaning cattle!
Presumably the origin of this is from using cattle for trade/barter, then someone figured to use more convenient token cattle instead. The bull was one of the symbols on the early "Aes Signatum" bronze bars used as money. Not mine, sadly.
True. Also an interesting fact is that the mint in Rome was located in the temple to Juno. One of her titles was "IVNO MONETA", which roughly translates to "Juno the advisor". "MONETA" then became associated with the product manufactured there and thus we got the word money!
In the early 4th c. "pecunia" was also used for "mint". The mint-mark for Londinium (London) was PLN or PLON : P(ecunia) Lon(diniensis).
I would like a currency bar one day, or at least a significant part of one. For now I have a foot in the door.
Similar to the English word „fee“, which derives from Germanic feoh, meaning cattle. Fee is pronounced exactly the same as the German word „Vieh“, which means farm animals, mostly cattle.
And, with this, we bring to a close the topic of derivatives introduced in Wheelock’s Latin, Chpt 2, pg 16. “Pecuniary is connected with pecus, cattle; just as English fee is connected to German Vieh, cattle.” …. but Latin sucks if one’s imagination is defined (or limited) by a mere modern interpretation. That is, during the transition from cattle to coin or money, I imagine pecuniae embodied much more of value and worth in barter than a mere object of cattle or coin - especially where things or objects carried no value, but the person or persons holding those things carried the value. Vale!
This is also the root of the word "picayune", which interestingly also has meaning as a small coin and as something of little value.
