The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1896-03-19
THE HISTORY OF WORDS.
Mint and N,ney-Curious Connection Z
Guffla and Cauitai.

Mint and M,ney-Curious Connection Of
Cattle and Capital.
We all know that q place where
metal is coined is called mint. But
why is it so called? Is it not a striE
ingly curious fact that the two
words mint and money are made
from tho same Latin word? Yet it
is not more so than many other
facts disclosed in tho study of ETY.
mology. There is very commonly
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 place for
making coins simply because when
tho need of such a name was first
recognized the place used for their
making happened to Do tho 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-
MISREPRESENTATION shows its origin
moro clearly than the monosyllahle
mint does. Money is called moneta
in Italian and monnaie in French.
and the French name for mint /:
"hotel des monnaies.
We habitually taink of money
only as coined metal, OF what ns
call paper money. Our ideas would
be protitably amplitied by a little
special reading on the subject, and
one interesting book for the purpose
is Money and the Mechanism OF
Exchange, by w. S. Jevons, which
begins with the following narration:
Mile. Zelie, a singer of the The
atre Lyrique at Paris, made q pro-
! fessional tour around the world AID
gavo a concert in the Society islands.
In exchange for an air from Norma
and few other songs she was to re-
oeive q third part of the receipts
When counted, her share was found
to consist of 3 pigs, % turkeys, Al
chickens. 5000 cocoanuts, 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 vegetab ables might have brought
A, 900 francs, which would have been
good remuneration for five songs
In the Society islands, however,
pieces of money were very scarce,
and as mademoiselle 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 tho fruit y
The singers payment in this way
arose merely from scarcity ct
money, but there was a time when
live stock was the standard measure
Of value or medium of exchange" "
and in several languages the name
for money is identical with that of
somo kind of cattle or domesticated
animal.
The namo cattle arose from the
| fact that the animals were counted
by tho head, which suggested the
Latin namo capitalc, from caput,
meaning head. Because cattle were
the measure Cf valuo 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 those facts that other words
must have come from the SAND
source? Any genealogical dictionary
will tell Us that caput, Latin for
head, is q part of many common
English words. / will mention only
few that occur to mo without ref
erenco to books. They arc capillary,
caption, capitulate, chapter, decapi-
tate, and each Of them has curious
history.-Philadelphia Times.
| Edna LyaIrs "Dream Children"
The famous English authoress,
Edna Lyall, writing of her life and
early literary influences and work il
The Ladies Home Journal, says:
From the early days Of my author
ship up TO the present time there
has always been a story on hand,
and writing has become so much
part of my life that it is difficult
quito to understand what life with
out vocation would be ike or how
people exist without dream chill
/ dren.' They cost ono much suffer
ing and bring many cares and anx-