The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-02-29
THE HISTORY OF WORDS.
Mint and Money-Curious Connection q
Cattle and Capital.


metal is coined is called a mint. But
why is it 80 called? Is it not a strik-
ingly curious fact that the two
words mint and money are made
from the same Latin word? Yet it
is not mere SO than many other
facts disclosed in the study of ETY..
mology. There is very commonly a
close connection between the history
OF events and the making of the
words most prominent in the record
of that history.
Mint Is the name of a place for
making coins simply because when
the need of such a name was first
recognized the place used for their
making happened to be the Roman
temple of the goddess Juno, one of
whose surnames was Moneta, said
to mean literally "adviser.' In An
glo-Saxon the word had two sylla-
bles-mynet-which shows its origin
more clearly than the monosyllable
mint does. Money is called moneta
in Italian and monnaie in French,
and the French name for a mint is
hotel des monnaies.'
We habitually think of money
only as coined motal, 81 what we
call paper money. Our ideas would
be profitably amplitied by a little
special reading on the subject, and
II interesting book for the purpose
is Money and the Mechanism of
Exchange by w. $. Jevons, which
begins with the folio wins narration:
Mile. Ielie, a singer Of the The
atre Lyrique at Paris, made d pro-
fessional tour around the world and
gave a concert in the Society islands.
In exchange for al air from Norma
and a few other songs she was to re-
ceive a third part of the receipts.
When counted, her share was found
to consist of 3pigs, % turkeys, Al
chickens, 5000 c%ocoanuts, besides
considerable quantities of bananas,
lemons and oranges. At the Halle
in Paris, as the prima donna remarks
in her lively letter, printed by NJ.
Wolowski, this amount of live stock
and vegetables might have brought
4, 900 francs, which would have been
good remuneration for five songs.
In the Society islands, however,
pieces of money YER very scarce,
and as malemoisello could not con-
sumo any considerable portion of
the receipts herself it became neces-
sary in the meantime to feed the
pigs and poultry with the fruit"
The singers payment in this way
arose merely from a scarcity of
money, but there was a time when
live stock was the standard measure
of value or medium of ~eXcnange,'
and in several languages the name
for money is identical with that OF
some kind of cattle or domesticated
animal.
The name cattle arose from the
fact that the animals We're counted
by the head, which suggested the
Latin name capitale, from caput.
meaning head. Because cattle We're
the measure of value all property
was reckoned as worth so many cat
tie, and this circumstance also gives
us the words capital and chattel.
Is it not an interesting suggestion
from these facts that ether words
must have come from the same
source? Any chronological dictionary
will tell us that caput, Latin fol
head, is a part of many common
English words. I will mention only
a few that occur to me without ref
erence to books. They T. capillary
caption, capitulate, chapter, decapi
tate, and each of them has a curious
history.-Philadelphia Times.
ARE NEW YORK WOMEN "SINFULT
A Wise Britisher Considers TheiI ORES
and S "Yes."
We so often find ourselves on thu
side of the rich and opposed to thos'
who rate them for existing that WI
r a little pleased to discover a sub
!, ject upon which we can join in thu
, chorus of reprobation for what ma,
} fairly be denominated sinful ex
travagance."
} 1t is stated on fair authority tina
one firm of diapers in New Yorl
r has on it's books the names of 40 Ia
!, dies whose accounts for dress mate
] rails exceed, on an average, $40, 00O
> Or f2, 900, a year. Their bills ar
] presented semiannually and ar
= paid, say the happy diapers, by thei
{ husbands without a murmur. 1t
Q expressly added that this expendi
ture does not include jewels, whicl
) are, of course, to the extent of two
' thirds of their shop value, perma
| nent investments; or laces, whicl
q are nearly as durable as jewels, bu
S is confined to perishable articles
silks. satins, embroideries and til
things usually included when WON
en- speak of dress" We have littl
S doubt that the figures are correct
for they Ire far below those whic
u were published when, after the fa.