What’s the Word: A few choice words for $$

A couple of buddies here at work were asking me about the origin of some slang terms for money. The ones they brought up were sawbuck, and the short form of that one, the more commonly used buck, and simoleon. There are lots of others, and I’m going to touch on some of those too, as many as space allows anyway, but I’m going to deal with the ones my pals came up with first.

It seems simoleon has been around for a long time, but has just gained some newfound notoriety as the name for the currency used in the popular computer game “The Sims.”

The actual evolution of the term is rather convoluted. According to the “World Wide Words” Web site, in early 18th century Britain there was a small silver coin called a sixpence, which was known in slang as a “simon,” possibly named after Thomas Simon, an engraver at the London Mint. The term “simon” later emigrated to America and transferred to the dollar coin. During the same period, the 1850s, there was also a much more valuable French gold coin called a “Napoleon” and apparently some wit combined the two and came up with “simoleon.”

One of the earliest records of the term being used in print was a story from the Davenport Daily Gazette of Iowa in 1883 which was, oddly enough, a mock-biblical story about local journalists losing their press club to an enterprising dentist who offered their landlord more money. Herewith the quote: “The doctor spoke unto Mr. Thede, and did offer to him many fat simoleons and talents of gold and shekels of goodly silver, and Mr. Thede hearkened unto his voice, and the tones thereof were too canny for him.”

Uh, right. Simoleons and talents and shekels, oh my. I’d have rented the good doctor the place too. On the other hand, I think maybe the tone of the journalists of that time is a little too canny for most folks. Maybe if their writing had been a bit less stilted they would have been able to keep their press club.

Now, on to sawbuck. Sawbuck is usually used to refer to a $10 bill. This one has a rather interesting background, at least according to some explanations. A sawbuck, or more commonly, a sawhorse, was a movable frame used to support a piece of wood while it was being sawed. Early on, most U.S. paper currency originally had the values in Roman numerals. As recently as the 19th century bills were called, “Vs,” “Xs,” “Cs,” and so on. In fact, the “C” for the $100 bill is the origin of current term “C-note.” The $10 bill was already called an “X” and probably started being called a “sawbuck” because the letter “X” resembled the crossed legs of the sawhorse.

Oddly enough, the term “buck,” which is used to refer to a dollar bill, helped popularize the term sawbuck, though it came a bit later. But the term “buck” itself has more obscure origin. Most language researchers say they aren’t really sure where that one came from. Some say that it came from “buckskin” because of the use of deerskins as a unit of exchange in the days of the frontier. The term first turned up in the 1850s but was rarely used until the 20th century.

Another term for money that has always fascinated me is “filthy lucre.” Kind of fits right in with the saying, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Turns out this actually comes from the Bible, specifically Titus, 1:11, where it says: “Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.”

Hmm, the folks in Hollywood probably haven’t read that one lately, but maybe they should.

Charlie Johnson is news editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at newseditor@southernstandard.com.