dollarn.
/ˈdɒlə/, U.S. /ˈdɑlər/ 1. The English name for the German thaler, a large silver coin, of varying value, current in the German states from the sixteenth century; esp. the unit of the German monetary union (1857–73) equal to 3 marks. Also of coins of northern countries, bearing equivalent names, as the rigsdaler of Denmark, riksdaler of Sweden.
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society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > foreign coins > [noun] > German or Prussian coins
hellera1549
kreutzera1549
morkina1549
pfenniga1549
dollar1553
batz1568
fennin1611
groschen1617
mariengroschen1617
mark1727
schilling1753
thaler1787
Joachimsthaler1831
tail-ducat1864
krone1871
1553 R. Morysin & Sir T. Chamberlayne Let. 4 Apr. in E. Lodge Illustr. etc. Edw. VI (1791) I. xxiii. 166 The Duke of Wirtemberg..shall have for his charges 66000 dalers.
a1560 Aberdeen Reg. V. 24 (Jam.) Twa siluer daleiris.
1560 T. Gresham in J. W. Burgon Life & Times Sir T. Gresham (1839) I. 334 To be received of the Countie of Mansfield..300,000 dallors; which, at five shillings each, is 75,000l.
1577 W. Harrison Descr. Eng. (1877) ii. xxv. i. 364 Of siluer coines..are the dalders, and such, often times brought ouer.
1588 J. Read tr. F. Arcaeus Compend. Method f. 68 A plate..in thickenesse of a Dolor of siluer.
1603 R. Johnson tr. G. Botero Hist. Descr. Worlde 92 2. dollars of money..euery house one dollor.
1606 R. F. Williams Birch's Court & Times James I (1849) (modernized text) I. 67 The King of Denmark..hath given in court 30,000 dollars.
a1618 J. Sylvester Auto-machia 108 For Dallers, Dolours hoordeth in my Chest.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Dollar, a foreign coin: The Zeoland, or common Dollar is worth 3 shillings sterling, the specie Dollar 5s. The Dollar of Riga 4s. 8d. Of Lunenburg and Brisgaw 4s. 2d. Of Hamburgh 3s. 2d.
a1763 W. Shenstone Oeconomy i, in Wks. Verse & Prose (1764) I. 292 With nice precision learn A dollar's value.
1775 N. W. Wraxall Cursory Remarks Tour N. Europe 101 I tender them one of fifty copper dollars.
1864 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia IV. xvii. v. 571 ‘Let my ducat be a Joachimsthal one, then!’ the old trader would say: ‘a Joachimsthal-er’; or for brevity, a ‘Thal-er’; whence Thaler, and at last Dollar (almighty and otherwise),—now going round the world!
2. The English name for the peso or piece of eight (i.e. eight reales), formerly current in Spain and the Spanish American colonies, and largely used in the British North American Colonies at the time of their revolt.
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society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > foreign coins > [noun] > South American coins
peso1555
dollar1581
tomin1589
centesimo1863
sol1884
sucre1886
centimo1887
cruzeiro1942
dinero-
1581 B. Rich Farewell Mil. Profession (Shaks. Soc.) 217 Their beardes sometymes cutte rounde, like a Philippes doler.
1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 41 A Spanish shilling (which is a fourth part of a Dollar).
1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis 108 As great as a silver Caroline Doller.
1767 B. Franklin in Pennsylvania Chron. 25 May–1 June 1/4 A Dollar thereby coming to be rated at 8s. in Paper Money of New-York.
1779 R. King Life & Corr. (1894) I. 30 Could you send me three or four hundred of those good for nothing paper dollars?
1813 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1838) 25 Feb. X. 143 Dollars are issued to the troops at the rate of 4/6 sterling each, which is the mint price of dollars in England.
1879 H. Phillips Addit. Notes upon Coins 12 A silver dollar of Philip II of Spain bears among his other titles that of King of England.
3.
a. The standard unit of the gold and silver coinage of the United States of America, containing 100 cents. Also a coin of corresponding value in Canada and some other countries. Sometimes abbreviated dol., but more generally represented by the dollar-mark $ before the number. (See also almighty adj. 2a) The decimal system of coinage and the dollar were adopted by the Continental Congress on 6 July 1785 (see quot.), but were not brought into use till 1794, two years after the law of 2 April 1792 establishing the mint.
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society > trade and finance > money > standards and values of currencies > [noun] > specific monetary units or units of account > specific U.S.
Rhode Island currency1750
Rhode Island money1750
dollar1785
mill1786
dlr1895
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > foreign coins > [noun] > North American coins > U.S.
quarter dollar1615
bit1683
quarter1776
cent1782
dollar1785
dime1786
eagle1786
half-dollar1786
half-eagle1786
sharpshin1804
picayune1805
caser1825
pic1839
double eagle1849
slug1851
hog1859
pine tree money1859
martin bita1884
meter1940
1782 T. Jefferson Notes on Money Unit for U.S. in Wks. III. 446 The unit or [Spanish] dollar is a known coin and the most familiar of all to the mind of the people. It is already adopted from south to north.]
1785 Resol. Continent. Congress U.S. 6 July Resolved, that the money unit of the United States of America be one dollar.
1796 Amer. State Papers For. Relat. (1832) I. 549 (Stanf.) at Douceur Sixty thousand dollars were paid.
1821 T. Jefferson Autobiogr. in Writings (1892) I. 74 I proposed..to adopt the Dollar as our Unit of account and payment.
1837 W. Irving Creole Village in Magnolia 317 The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land.
b. The value of a dollar; an amount answering to this. U.S.
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1851 C. Cist Sketches & Statistics Cincinnati 231 Geo. S. Stearns..makes yearly eight thousand dollars of printing inks.
c. Colloquial phrases (originally and chiefly U.S.): bottom dollar, see bottom n. and adj. Compounds 3; (it is) dollars to doughnuts (or (it is) dollars to buttons, etc.), (it is) almost assured; a certainty; (like) a million dollars, see million adj. and n.
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1884 G. W. Peck Peck's Boss Bk. 130 It is dollars to buttons that..she will be blown through the roof.
1890 Texas Siftings 8 Nov. 6/3 It is dollars to a doughnut..That some one will start a fire.
1904 Boston Herald 8 Aug. 6 It is dollars to cobwebs that every such person will be disappointed.
1904 Utica (N.Y.) Observer 29 June 6 They talk of fire drills;..it is dollars to doughnuts that not an excursion boat in New York harbor ever had one.
1932 Atlantic Monthly Mar. 390/2 It is dollars to doughnuts not a soul will see him.
1936 ‘J. Curtis’ Gilt Kid xiii. 131 If he were seen it was dollars to doughnuts that he would be arrested.
4.
a. Also used as a name for various foreign coins of a value more or less approaching that of the Spanish or American dollar; as the peso of Mexico, and of the republics of Central and South America, the piastre of Arabia, the yen of Japan, etc.
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1882 R. Bithell Counting-house Dict. (1893) 99 [Doblon] The Gold Doblon of Chili weighing 7·626 grammes, ·900 fine, value 5 Chilian dollars, or 18s. 8·95d.
1882 R. Bithell Counting-house Dict. (1893) 222 Patacon. (a.) The unit of value in the Argentine Republic (La Plata). It bears also the alternative names of Peso Duro, and Hard Dollar.
1882 R. Bithell Counting-house Dict. (1893) 226 [Peso] The excellence of the Mexican peso, or dollar, renders it a favourite coin with all countries, and has given it much of the character of an international coin.
1882 R. Bithell Counting-house Dict. (1893) 228 [Piastre] The Piastre or Mocha Dollar is the unit of value in Arabia, and is worth nearly 3s. 5d.
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b. slang. A five-shilling piece; a crown.
5. With qualifying words. buzzard dollar, a name applied, in derision of the figure of an eagle on the reverse side, to the United States silver dollar of 412½ grains, coined in accordance with the Bland Bill of 1878. lion dollar, a Dutch coin bearing the figure of a lion; also current in New York in colonial times. pillar dollar, a silver coin of Spain, bearing a figure of the Pillars of Hercules, formerly current in the Spanish colonies in America: cf. sense 2 trade dollar, a silver dollar of 420 grains formerly coined by the United States mint for purposes of trade with eastern Asia. dollar of the fathers, a phrase applied to the silver dollar, by those who advocated its remonetization, which was effected in 1878: see quot. 1889.
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a1725 Ld. Whitworth Acct. Russia in 1710 (1758) 77 Of the same goodness with Lyon Dollars, viz. twelve ounces fine silver, and four ounces alloy to the pound.
1768 Gov. Moore To Earl of Hillsborough in Documents Colonial Hist. N.-Y. 14 May VIII. 72 The Lyon Dollars (a species of money brought here by the first Dutch settlers) are rarely now seen.
1823 G. Crabb Universal Technol. Dict. (at cited word) The former [Spanish Dollars] are called pillar dollars, because they bear on the reverse the arms of Spain between two pillars.
1877 N.Y. Tribune 21 July 6 Some of the absurdities of the demand for the ‘Dollar of our Fathers’.
1878 Nation (N.Y.) 10 Jan. 26 Linderman..was the projector of the trade-dollar.
1882 R. Bithell Counting-house Dict. (1893) 301 The coinage of the Silver Trade Dollar was first authorized by the Act of Feb. 12th, 1873.
1889 J. S. Farmer Americanisms Dollar of the Fathers, a catch cry, turned by opponents into the ‘dollar of the daddies’, which was used during the remonetization agitation of 1877.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
dollar-bill n.
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1774 N. Cresswell Jrnl. (1925) 21 A considerable sum in Four, Three, Two, One, Two-thirds, One-third and ‘One-Ninth’ of a Dollar Bills is struck in these Bills of Credit.
1813 Kingston (Upper Canada) Gaz. 7 Sept. 3/3 Two hundred and fifty pounds in Dollar bills.
c1828 A. Lawrence Diary & Corr. (1855) 87 Dollar-bill was found in your chamber on the morning you left home.
1883 Cent. Mag. 26 596/2 Folding the dollar-bills that she had brought her.
1917 H. T. Comstock Man thou Gavest 195 He..tucked the letter and dollar bill in the breast of his shirt.
dollar-earner n.
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1958 New Statesman 22 Feb. 224/3 Tourism is..our biggest single dollar-earner.
dollar-earning adj.
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1962 Harper's Bazaar Aug. 13 Scotch whisky—Britain's biggest dollar-earning export.
dollar-hunt n.
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1892 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker ix. 138 Of all forms of the dollar hunt, this wrecking had by far the most address to my imagination.
dollar-hunter n.
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1848 J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. II. iv. vi. 309 The life of the whole of one sex is devoted to dollar-hunting, and of the other to breeding dollar-hunters.
dollar-hunting n. and adj.
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1900 Daily News 25 Sept. 4/6 The dollar-hunting Americans.
dollar-note n.
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1831 Deb. Congr. U.S. 22 Feb. App. p. cxxxix Taking the issues of one, two, and three dollar notes, in the Eastern States as a guide.
1844 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit xxxiii. 397 A little roll of dollar-notes fell out upon the ground.
1857 Hist. Mag. I. 186 In 1784,..Jefferson in the memorial which proposed the dollar as the American money-unit, employed the $ sign.]
C2. With reference to the pursuit and worship of ‘the almighty dollar’ (see quot. 1837 in sense 1837 at sense 3a).
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1897 Outing (U.S.) 30 373/1 Our striving, dollar-chasing people.
1901 Westm. Gaz. 5 July 2/1 The father is regarded as the dollar-grinding machine.
1902 Westm. Gaz. 9 May 9/1 What if the American Dollar-Kings hold the keys to the railway depots of the great Western Continent?
1906 Fabian News 16 7/1 It is not life but the dollar-hustle which is copious, vehement and bold for this hundred-million nation.
1906 Westm. Gaz. 17 Dec. 2/1 Washington society escapes the dollar-mark with entire success.
C3.
dollar area n. the area comprising countries where the American dollar is used as currency or as a basis for exchange, or whose sterling balances with British banks are freely convertible into dollars.
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1946 Hansard Commons 19 Nov. 688 Will the hon. Gentleman give an assurance that no goods will be purchased from the dollar area which can be purchased from the sterling area?
dollar-a-year man n. U.S. a man who serves the government for a nominal salary; also transferred.
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1918 Literary Digest 11 May 11/1 While the ‘dollar-a-year men’ undoubtedly did good work, the delay and friction in our war-machine became glaringly evident.
1952 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Oct. 702/3 This business man first turned banker; and then he turned Secretary of the Navy, and later of Defence, to serve his country as a dollar-a-year man.
dollar country n. a country in the dollar area.
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1947 Hansard Commons 8 July 2048 We are drawing nearly half our supplies from dollar countries.
1953 Ann. Reg. 1952 338 The more northerly ‘dollar countries’ of Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Mexico.
dollar diplomacy n. originally U.S. a foreign policy that seeks to further the financial and commercial interests of a country (spec. of America) abroad and often to extend its influence in international relations by means of these interests.
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1910 Harper's Weekly 23 Apr. 8 An attempt is made..to outline..what is meant by the term ‘Dollar Diplomacy’, as it has come to be commonly applied to certain of the activities of Secretary Knox..in Honduras, in Liberia, [etc.].
1940 Economist 31 Aug. 277/2 The Nazis reinforce Argentina's distrust of American leadership by whispering campaigns on ‘dollar diplomacy’.
1958 Times 17 July 3/3 There were three conflicting forces... The first was international Communism, the second aggressive nationalism, and, third, and more recent—dollar doctrine and diplomacy.
dollar gap n. the excess of a country's (spec. Britain's) receipts or imports from the United States or other countries in the dollar area over its payments or exports to those countries.
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1948 Ann. Reg. 1947 92 A year when the British people were introduced to a battle of the dollar gap.
1957 Times 18 Nov. (Annual Financial & Commerc. Review) p. i/1 Sterling came under such exceptional pressure in the current year, however, largely because of..the re-emergence of the dollar gap.
dollar imperialism n. = dollar diplomacy n.
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1964 Daily Tel. 12 Feb. 14 ‘Dollar imperialism’ is condemned for disorganising or even preying on the liberation of Britain's empire.
dollar-mark n. see 3.
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1847 Boston Weekly Mail 23 Jan. 3/6 The dollar mark..is only applied, properly, to the United States coin, or currency, of that name.
1894 Montreal Star Almanac for 1895. 132 It was found convenient to continue the old dollar-mark in the South, and to adopt it in the North.
dollar-sign n. U.S. = dollar-mark n.
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1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 223/3 Linen Markers Rubber Type Outfit... Consists of five printers' alphabets,..punctuation marks, dollar sign, [etc.].
1920 S. Lewis Main St. x. 115 The dollar-sign has chased the crucifix clean off the map.
dollar spot n. a discoloured patch caused by disease, as on an animal or on turf; the disease itself.
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1912 J. R. Mohler et al. tr. F. Hutyra & J. Marek Spec. Pathol. Dis. Domest. Animals I. vi. 826 The number of the dollar spots may be considerable, even exceeding one hundred.
1922 C. R. Edmonds Dis. Animals S. Afr. 340 About the fortieth day the ‘plaques’ or dollar spots first appear in the skin.
1926 Bull. U.S. Golf Assoc. Green Section May 129 Small [brown-]patch is generally limited to about the size of a silver dollar, from which it has been commonly referred to as ‘dollar spot’.
1935 Gardeners' Chron. 23 Feb. 129/1 Investigation of diseases of turf of lawns and greens has been prosecuted in the U.S.A. for many years, and the commonest diseases and causal organisms are well known, viz., Brown-patch, due to Rhizoctonia Solani, and Dollarspot, due to an unnamed species of Rhizoctonia.
1956 Dict. Gardening (Royal Hort. Soc.) (ed. 2) IV. 2169/2 Dollar Spot is due to the fungus Sclerotinia homoeocarpa.
dollar store n. U.S. a shop in which all or most of the articles are priced at a dollar or less.
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1872 Harper's Mag. June 132/2 There are ever so many good girls in factories..and in ‘dollar stores’ too.
Derivatives
ˈdollared adj. furnished with dollars, wealthy.
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1884 Longman's Mag. Feb. 386 The dollared lady.
ˈdollarless adj. without dollars: cf. penniless adj.
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1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) xvii. 220 A dollarless and unknown man.
dollaˈrocracy n. see -cracy comb. form.Apparently an isolated use.
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1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 2 July 2/1 The phlegmatic assurance of dollarocracy.
ˈdollarship n. humorously the personality of a dollared man.
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1869 H. Deedes Ten Months Amer. 151 So long as their Dollarships' eyes and noses are not affected by his [the negro's] propinquity.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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