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"coin; currency" in seven languages

Meaningcoin; currency

Spanish

moneda

/moˈneda/

fem.inherited

French

monnaie

/mɔnɛ/

fem.inherited

Monnaie is currency or small change; a single coin is une pièce.

Italian

moneta

/moˈneta/

fem.inherited

Portuguese

moeda

/moˈɛdɐ/

fem.inherited

Portuguese dropped the intervocalic -n-: MONĒTAM → moeda.

Romanian

monedă

/moˈnedə/

fem.borrowed · Modern Greek monéda / Italian moneta

Catalan

moneda

/muˈnɛdə/

fem.inherited

English

coin

/kɔɪn/

other source · Old French coin (Latin CUNEUM 'wedge')

Its cognate 'money' is the word that comes from MONĒTA.

English → Italiancoin; currencymonetaNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: money, mint, monetary.What English and Italian share

Watch out: false friends

  • coin (French) means “corner” · coin (English) means “piece of money”

    Both from Latin CUNEUM 'wedge'. French kept the wedge-shaped angle; English took Old French coin 'die for stamping money', and then the money itself.

All false friends

The Latin ancestor

MONĒTAM‘mint; coin (from Juno Moneta, at whose temple Rome struck coins)’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Rome's mint stood by the temple of Juno Moneta, and the goddess's epithet became the word for coin. English got money from French and mint straight from the Latin.

English relatives: money, mint, monetary

Sound laws at work

Voiceless stops between vowels soften

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In a sentence

  • esTengo una moneda de dos euros.
  • frJ'ai une pièce de deux euros.
  • itHo una moneta da due euro.
  • ptTenho uma moeda de dois euros.
  • roAm o monedă de doi euro.
  • caTinc una moneda de dos euros.
  • enI have a two-euro coin.

More in Work & money

All Work & money words