the word money

Understanding the word money will not make you rich but it will make you prosperous as you gain knowledge. I'm a wise fool and I should know since money and I quickly part.

Where does the word money come from ?

What constitutes as money ? Is gold money? Is a bond money ? Is currency money ? Most likely the reasonable answer to that is yes, yes, and yes. Each one is worth something in trade therefore each of these can be considered to be money ?

Can love be considered to be money ? Some people say love is as good as gold yet the only people who can trade love as a serious currency are considered to be amongst the lowest of life forms on the planet ? Yet the internet is loaded with sites where people sell a facsimili of love. Sex sells but is it money?

My answer is no. The act of love, or of providing sexual acts, is sometimes used to gain assets that are trade worthy and could be considered as money but they are no more than a form of barter. That is an opinion that I am certain many would challenge.

So where does the word money come from.

There was a time when the bartering system was the custom in society. This goes back a very, very long time. Imagine that you are one of the only humans to survive the last ice age. It's 11000 BC and the Holocene period is getting underway. You can come out of your cave now and when you do you find yourself meeting up with other survivors. You make connections and build bartering networks. A fair trade might mean exchanging a good flint for a fine, albeit rather aged possum. There is no consideration of money. The word is far out into the distant future yet.

You happen to be a good merchant trader in this bartering network and you have ways of stockpiling certain assets that can help you in your survival. However you become so prosperous that suddenly you have every possible necessity. Your stockpile is a surplus.

Someone approaches you with a barter opportunity. He needs some of your stock and offers you another possum in exchanges. You already have too many possums and ask him if he would consider taking a rock imprinted with his fingerprint on it as an option for a future trade. He accepts and takes his portion of your stock and walks away while leaving the rock with you. This rock gives you the right to return to him at anytime and take some of his stock worth an equal amount to the rock value.

That story isn't so far fetched.

Money started out in a similar way. At least that is how I understand money. It is a replacement to a bartering system. Money allows for the exchange of one good today which someone needs (or wants) for a symbolic coin or piece of paper that can be used in the future.

The word money possibly derives from Old French and Latin languages.

The online etymology dictionary states that the word money came about in the following way:

"from Old French, moneie, or from Latin, Moneta."

Interestingly enough the Roman Goddess Juno was given the title Moneta and it was near her temple in Rome that coins were minted. Juno Moneta was the patron saint of funds and protected such.

So there you have it.

I hope you have a better understanding of the word money.