The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-01-28
WHY "PLUNKS" FOR MONEY.
And Some Other Odd Names Given
to Money.

l.. X. Asks the origin or the Word
"plunks." colloquial, familiar term
for dollars. He wonders whether it
has any association with the Plunkitt
family. Il remember hearing the
word before the civil war. 1t was
in use after that historic event, GER
tainly as late as the seventies in New
York, where l was then living"
The word is still heard in Boston,
although our best people prefer
"bones," sometimes ''cold bones. y
Strange to say, "plunks,' or "plunk-
ers," is not found in any slang die
tionary of importance. though many
less pleasing or foolish synonyms OF
money" are treated with almost
reverential consideration by compil-
ers. We find no word in dialect forms
that suggests an origin. Has the
plunker in the game of marbles any
thing to do with it? The 'nlcker.
sometimes called a "plunker,' was a
"pigger" that had been partly vitri-
fed in the fire, and generally had one
side burned to a darker hue than the
other. Did not "plunks" originally
refer to heavy coins rather than to
bills? Here is one of those questions
concerning derivation, which, like the
precise nature of the Sirens song or
the name assumed by Achilles when
he hid himself among women, is puz-
zling, but not beyond all conjec-
ture.' Plunks. The word is sig
nificant, impressive. Hearing it,
think of doubloons, moidores, pieces
of eight; of ventripotent, auripotent,
auriferous and vociferous persons,
bank directors, bondholders, renters,
shakers of pagoda trees.
Plunks, cold bones, long green, in
sect powder, mazooma with its va
RANT mazoomda,) words as sweet to
us as was the sound of Mesopotama
to the pious old lady in the pew; yet
they are not in the list that fills over
two pages in Slang and Its Ana
logues.'' list that begins actual,
ballast, beans" and ends with ''wad,
wedge, wherewith. yellow boys, yen
noms." We learn again that 1000
| 600 pounds is a marigold, 100000
pounds a plum, 500 pounds a mon
key, and IS Sd a coachwheel, five
pot piece, flatch, fore coach wheel
George, half case, half dollar, half
Oxford, half yenork, madzacaroon OF
slat.
Great is the English language! But
listen to Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi
the author of British Synonymy
or an Attempt at Regulating the
Choice of Words in Familiar Conver'
sation" Dublin, 1794D Money
cash, cole, assets, ready rino, chink
corianders, from a string Of hateful
words-synonymo enough. or neat
ly so, in the vulgar and despicable
dialect of coarse traders in the houl
of merriment; but to be ever sedu
lousy avoided by those who mean te
be thought eminent for choice Of
phrase and elegance of conversation.
She quotes DR.. Johnson as having
said there was such thing as e
city voice" different from that Of
persons who had from their youth
inhabited the court end of the town
We know, Mrs. Piozzi, what DR.. John
son said of you when you were
weary of widowhood, although the
Brewer Thrale had left you not mere
ly "a parcel of boilers and watts, but
the potentiality of growing rich be
yond the dreams of avarice." DR.
Johnson may have shifted at "read!
rino,' and snorted at "chink," bu
he surely would have smiled or
'plunks" and "plunkers." There i:
something substantial and sturdy ii
the, mere sound of the word.-Bostor
Herald