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The earliest recorded occurrence of the word as slang for money appears to have been in the late 19th century in the United States. The New Oxford Dictionary of English marks the origin as US slang. However, according to the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, [4] the term can be traced back to the mid-19th century in England. Other sources also ...
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 ...
The term porcelain derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (porcellana) due to their similar appearance. [1] Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money.
Born right smack on the cusp of millennial and Gen Z years (ahem, 1996), I grew up both enjoying the wonders of a digital-free world—collecting snail shells in my pocket and scraping knees on my ...
Shell money has appeared in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia. The shell most widely used worldwide as currency was the shell of Cypraea moneta , the money cowry . This species is most abundant in the Indian Ocean , and was collected in the Maldive Islands , in Sri Lanka , along the Malabar coast, in Borneo and on other East Indian ...
The shell game (also known as thimblerig, three shells and a pea, the old army game) is often portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is almost always a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud. [1] In confidence trick slang, this swindle is referred to as a short-con because it is quick and easy to ...
And it's not just a variation on American slang, either: the local lingo in St. Louis takes time to get your head around. So here's a run-down of St. Louis' local language and its most common ...
Those who speak English use the equivalent English words as slang. gam – derogatory term for Coloured people in South Africa. Derived from "Gham" or "Ham" referring to Ham in the Old Testament. It is a reference to the children of Noah's son Ham who were illegitimate and cursed into slavery by God. [10] [11]