dollar

Etymology

Attested since about 1500, from early Dutch daler, daalder, from German Taler, Thaler (“dollar”), from Sankt Joachimsthaler, literally "of Joachimstal," the name for coins minted in German Sankt Joachimsthal (“St. Joachim's Valley”) (now Jáchymov, Czech Republic). Ultimately from Joachim + Tal (“valley”). Cognate to Danish daler.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɒlə/
• (General American) enPR: dälʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈdɑlɚ/
• (Canada) sometimes (US) IPA^(key): /dɔlɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒlə(r)
• Hyphenation: dol‧lar

Noun

dollar (plural dollars)

1. Official designation for currency in some parts of the world, including Canada, Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Its symbol is $.
   • 2015 November 22, John Oliver, “Pennies”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 35, HBO:

     Yeah, but why? Lincoln doesn’t need the penny for notoriety. He’s everywhere. We put him on novelty bandages, cup-and-ball games, and creepy Chia Pets. And you know where else we put him? The five-dollar bill! You know, the thing that’s worth 500 times more than the penny!

2. (by extension) Money generally.
   • Marcella Ridlen Ray, Changing and Unchanging Face of United States Civil Society

     Television, a favored source of news and information, pulls the largest share of advertising monies. In 1935, newspapers received 45 percent of the advertising dollar, magazines 8 percent, and radio 7 percent.

3. (Britain, colloquial, historical) A quarter of a pound or one crown, historically minted as a coin of approximately the same size and composition as a then-contemporary dollar coin of the United States, and worth slightly more.
   • 1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Born at the Right Time”, The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.

     We like to go down to restaurant row / Spend those euro-dollars / All the way from Washington to Tokyo

   • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:

     But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.

4. (attributive, historical) Imported from the United States, and paid for in U.S. dollars. (Note: distinguish "dollar wheat", North American farmers' slogan, meaning a market price of one dollar per bushel.)
   • 1952 Brigadier Sir Harry Mackeson, House of Commons, London; Hansard vol 504 col 271, 22 July 1952:

     The restricted purchase of dollar tobacco will, we hope, have the effect of increasing the imports of Turkish and Grecian tobacco

   • 1956 The Spectator Vol.197 p.342:

     For there are two luxury imports that lead all the others : dollar films and dollar tobacco.

See also

• cent
• dale
• mill
• mille
• vale
• valley

Anagrams

• old ral

Etymology

From English dollar, from early Dutch daler, daalder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔlɑr/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

dollar m (plural dollars, diminutive dollartje n)

1. dollar

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɔ.laʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

dollar m (plural dollars)

1. dollar

Further reading

• “dollar” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Etymology

From Middle Low German daler, via English dollar

Noun

dollar m (definite singular dollaren, indefinite plural dollar, definite plural dollarene)

1. a dollar (monetary unit)

References

• “dollar” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

From Middle Low German daler, via English dollar

Noun

dollar m (definite singular dollaren, indefinite plural dollar, definite plural dollarane)

1. a dollar (monetary unit)

References

• “dollar” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Noun

dollar c

1. dollar