Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:
> . . . still doesn't explain where `dime' comes from... Apparently,
> it comes from OF `disme' from `decima pars', a tenth part, but that
> doesn't explain how it came to be used to mean 10c. Was the word
> once more common? Was a tenth of a pound or a shilling called a dime?
<dîme> is the French equivalent of `tithe', and so was a living word in
Jefferson's time; perhaps he picked it because it's conveniently short
and had no English meaning.
--
Anton Sherwood -- http://www.ogre.nu/