Money Monikers

By Kathy Kovach

While watching the 133rd Tournament of Roses Parade this year, I learned something new. A “horseless carriage”, upon which our modern-day shuttle bus was designed, entered the route. The hosts bantered their trivia facts, calling it a jitney. As I’m a lover of middle 19th to middle 20th century, I knew the term. I didn’t know it was named after the amount of currency it took to ride the shuttle. One nickel, or jitney as the coin was nicknamed then. Thus, the fare cost a jitney to ride a jitney.

This got me to pondering about slang terms for money. Thanks to gangster movies, I can hear Bugsy demanding his share of the loot, the moola, the smackers. “It’s gonna cost ya 50 Gs if ya want me and the boys to protect your business.” That alleviated the business owner of his last fifty thousand dollars, one thousand being a grand, or "G." Smackers, by the way, is enough money to smack someone in the face with.

Some money terms center around food.

Bread, or dough, comes from our need for nutrition. The prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” can be taken figuratively or literally, as it takes money to pay for bread. We ask God for the means to provide for our family. The term “breadwinner” gained popularity in the 1940s, strengthening the use of the term of the starchy substance.

Cabbage, lettuce, and celery, have all been used to describe a wad of bills due to the color.

Bacon is another food word to define money. “Bring home the bacon,” for instance. It was first quoted in the September 3rd, 1906 Reno Evening Gazette regarding the boxer Joe Gans. Upon his win, the announcer read a telegram from Gans’s mother. “Everybody says you ought to win. Peter Jackson will tell me the news and you bring back the bacon.”

Come to think of it, if you put together bread, lettuce, and bacon, you have three quarters of a BLT. Tomato is the missing ingredient, but Bugsy had a different meaning for that juicy fruit. It meant “girl” in his day.

Some slang suggested a form of barter.

Clams, for instance, comes from a time when clamshells were used as currency, particularly among the Native Americans from the California region. The Miwok people bartered and traded with strings of clamshells. Wampum is another term the paleface adopted, which originated with our indigenous people, taken from the word wampumpeag.

You may have heard the term two bits, which is a quarter. This comes from the Spanish 8 Reales, or “pieces of eight” coin on which the U.S dollar was initially based. One bit is equal to one eighth of a dollar, or twelve-and-a-half cents. Therefore, two bits is twenty-five cents and four bits is fifty cents. Rare are the six bits at seventy-five cents and eight bits which comprises the whole dollar.

Scratch and simolean are interesting nicknames. The former may have come from the phrase “starting from scratch.” Around the turn of the 20th century, the scratch line was drawn during sporting events, such as a race, boxing, or cricket. That’s where one started from. Used for money, starting from scratch means starting from the beginning, essentially, from nothing. It was later shortened to mean a small amount change. “Hey buddy, ya got some scratch ya could lend me?” This is a variation of, "Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?"

Simolean, which is my favorite on this list, is thought to be a combination of words. The word simon is slang for the British sixpence and was later used for the American dollar. A napoleon is a form of French currency. Our friend Bugsy used it back in the 30s when discussing his latest monetary acquisition. "Yeah, I cleaned him out, I tell ya. I got all the simoleans. All the beans. Nothin' left in the guy's pocket but some lint and an old racing card."

As I mentioned earlier, other names stem from the appearance of money. For instance, greenback is literally a dollar bill with a green back, the other side printed in black and white. In the mid-1800s, Congress authorized the U.S. Department of the Treasury to issue over $400 million in legal tender to finance the American Civil War. These non-interest-bearing Demand Notes didn’t have the secure backing of gold and silver and were looked down upon by banks who were reluctant to give the full value to customers. However, all U.S. currency issued since 1861 remains valid and redeemable at full face value.

Sawbuck is also a term based on the look of what is on the dollar. If you picture a sawhorse, which in the olden days was merely two pieces of wood lashed together to form an “X,” you can imagine that image in the form of a large Roman numeral seen on the early $10 bill. Saw, for sawhorse, and buck, the slang word for dollar.

Slang is fun, and learning where certain words came from is entertainment in itself. Can you use these words in a sentence? Make Bugsy proud and use your best New York gangster accent.

• Shekel
• Benjamin
• Boodle
• Cha-ching
• Chump change
• Stash

Bugsy

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal
A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.



Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother, though much too young for that. Kathleen is a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.


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The History of Breakfast (with giveaway) By Donna Schlachter

Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

Breakfast—who doesn’t love the smell of bacon and coffee in the morning? Makes the whole getting up part of the day worthwhile. Of course, not everybody favors this meal, and in some cultures, they don’t even celebrate the sunrise or the new day ahead by digging into a platter of food.

So how, then, did breakfast come about?

Actually, the word “breakfast” didn’t come into common usage until the 1400s, when the term meant breaking the fast. Prior to that, eating food in the morning was called "partaking of the morning meal".

Photo by Rachel Claire from Pexels

 

In Ancient Egypt, bread made from wheat, falafel, fava beans, onion, and other spices comprised their daily meal, usually in the morning, before they went to work. Yes, the peasants ate but once a day.

Later, in Greece, Homer mentions a meal eaten shortly after sunrise, particularly by laborers eager for something light to start their day. Barley bread dipped in wine, sometimes accompanied by figs or olives, fed the body if not the soul. Pancakes of varying recipes, topped with honey, sesame, and cheese, came later.

In Rome, everyday staples like bread, cheese, salad, and meat left from the previous night were consumed, along with wine mixed with honey and spices. At some point, two other meals were added per day.

 

Photo by Miquel Rosselló Calafell from Pexels

During the medieval period, breakfast lost favor when the time spent around the table was reduced to twice a day, midday and evening. Children were often the exception, as well as the elderly, the sick, and heavy laborers, who might be granted a morning meal of a piece of bread and a bit of cheese.

By the 1400s, however, meat was now included, and the rich indulged in breakfast, making it a more common practice. By the end of the 1500s, breakfast was now customary, including coffee and tea, which were believed to aid in evacuation of “superfluities”.

Most cultures consume some kind of meal in the mornings nowadays, reflecting the local products available. In Africa, fruit and vegetables in season, along with milk and meat, comprise the meal. In Europe, the croissant originated in Vienna in 1863, and by 1875, had become standard fare in French breakfast.

As with most things, warnings abounded in the early 1500s that breakfast wasn’t healthy since dinner wasn’t yet digested. However, by the latter part of that century, public and medical opinion contended that breakfast was the most important meal of the day.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

In the United States, waffles were introduced by pilgrims from the Netherlands. Pioneers consumed breakfasts featuring cornmeal-based breads and cereals, cooked in various manners such as corn pone, johnnycakes, and corn dodgers. After the Civil War, ham-and-egg sandwiches were popular but not relegated to the morning meal. The first breakfast sandwich recipe was published in a cookbook in 1897.

Hot and cold cereals have been popular in America since the 1800s, caused by a movement that contended that the consumption of eggs, pancakes, bacon, and coffee was too indulgent. Canned juices became popular in the 1900s after the discovery of vitamins, with orange juice the favorite overall.

Most of the heroines I’ve written about struggled with cooking, usually because they weren’t taught to cook when they were living with their mother. Many of our own breakfast traditions arise from our family experiences, although I’m always game to adopt a new dish, so long as it isn’t too spicy.



Giveaway: leave a comment to enter a random drawing for an ebook copy of “Hollenberg Hearts”, my latest Pony Express release.

About “Hollenberg Hearts”:

Catherine Malloy escapes a poor past in response to a mail order bride ad her best friend answered. However, Margaret dies before meeting the man who owns horses and property in Kansas.

Benjamin Troudt works for the Hollenberg family at their way station in Kansas, and owns nothing but the clothes on his back. Unbeknownst to him, his pastor is corresponding with a potential wife from back East for him.

When Catherine, now calling herself Maggie, arrives, Benjamin knows nothing of the pastor's match-making, and rejects her. However, a seriously ill pregnant woman needs tending. Perhaps Maggie can prove herself useful.

Not only does she do just that, but she finds herself attracted to the very man who is looking for ways to send her away.


About Donna:

Donna writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 40 times in novellas, full-length novels, and non-fiction books. She is a member of several writing communities; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; blogs regularly; and judges in writing contests.

 

 

 

 

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