Re: CHAT: Hawaiian Money (was Re: NATLANG/FONT: the euro & 01.01.02)

Quoting Tristan Alexander McLeay <anstouh@...>:

> On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> > The reason I ask is that my confuture includes a Republic of
> > Hawaii, and I was thinking that they might harken back to
> > their earlier national days by naming the new currency after
> > the old one.
>
> Is `buck' short for something? (`Buck' is also valid in Aussie
> English.)
Supposedly, the term comes from early colonial days when
most transactions were carried out by bartering.  Deer-
hides were very valued as commodities, since you could
make all sorts of clothing and bags and such with them,
and so it became a standard unit of value.  When paper
currency was first introduced in European economies
(well after the first American colonies were planted),
the currency simply took over the name of the the old
standard.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>

             "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
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