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In the mountains of Bohemia is the small town of Jáchymov. In the early 16th century, the town was known by its German name, Sankt Joachimstal. At that time, a silver mine was opened nearby, and coins were minted to which the name joachimstaler was applied. In German this was shortened to Taler. Shortly afterward the Dutch or Low German form daler was borrowed into English to refer to the Taler and other coins that were patterned after it, such as the Spanish peso, which circulated widely in Britain’s North American colonies. Our modern word dollar is a different spelling of this daler. When the newly independent American colonies settled on an official monetary unit in 1785, they chose the name dollar.
Examples of dollar in a Sentence
Todd Spitzer, Orange County Register, 11 Nov. 2024
The district is losing tens of millions of dollars a year in state funding as fewer children enroll in Denver schools.
—Jessica Seaman, The Denver Post, 9 Nov. 2024
Taiwan already spends billions of dollars on U.S. military equipment.
—Jennifer Jett, NBC News, 7 Nov. 2024
What was once a niche for ultra-cheap laptops for students has expanded radically as Chrome OS becomes more powerful and versatile, and modern Chromebooks are faster and more capable than ever before while still being hundreds of dollars cheaper than the competition.
—K. Thor Jensen, PCMAG, 7 Nov. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near dollar
Cite this Entry
“Dollar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dollar. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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dollar
noun
from Dutch daler "silver coin formerly used in Germany," from German Taler (same meaning), shortened from Joachimstaler "a coin made in Sankt Joachimsthal (Saint Joachim's Valley) in Bohemia (a former kingdom in Europe)"
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