dollar

Meaning

Noun

• Official designation for currency in some parts of the world, including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Its symbol is $.
• Money generally.
• A quarter of a pound or one crown, historically minted as a coin of approximately the same size and composition as a then-contemporary dollar coin of the United States, and worth slightly more.
• Imported from the United States, and paid for in U.S. dollars. (Note: distinguish "dollar wheat", North American farmers' slogan, meaning a market price of one dollar per bushel.)

Origin

• Attested since about 1500, from early Dutch daler, daalder, from German Taler, Thaler, from Sankt Joachimsthaler, literally "of Joachimstal," the name for coins minted in German Sankt Joachimsthal ("St. Joachim's Valley") (now Jáchymov, Czech Republic). Ultimately from Joachim + Tal. Cognate to Danish daler. taler.