Word for the Wise : Mint
March 10th, 2010
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Author: Supposedly, it was on this date in 1652 that the first mint ever was established (somewhat illicitly) in the colonies. "Somewhat illicitly?" Well, for 30 years, every coin produced at the mint was dated 1652, in an effort to conceal the continuous mintage from the British authorities in London. Today we celebrate that early mint by minting our language for mint words.
We can thank the ancient Romans for the monetary mint that names the place where coins are made. When the Romans established a mint at a temple of the goddess Juno Moneta, the epithet moneta became a generic Latin term for a place where money is made. Moneta meandered through Europe and eventually into Old English, where it was transformed into the modern
We can thank the ancient Romans for the monetary mint that names the place where coins are made. When the Romans established a mint at a temple of the goddess Juno Moneta, the epithet moneta became a generic Latin term for a place where money is made. Moneta meandered through Europe and eventually into Old English, where it was transformed into the modern
mint in the 15th century. The monetary noun mint inspired both the 16th-century coinage of mint the verb and also the 20th-century adjectival mint, meaning "unmarred as if fresh from a mint."
As you may have suspected, there is no etymological connection between the money mint and the mint naming certain aromatic plants. In fact, the name of the genus mentha mint is even older than the monetary mint; it has its roots in a word of non-Indo-European origin.
Finally, there's the Scottish mint, distantly related to the Old English word for "mind." This mint means everything from "intend" to "suggest" to "aspire" and "hint."
We won't mince words: we like hearing from you. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Shawn Dudley is our audio engineer. Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
As you may have suspected, there is no etymological connection between the money mint and the mint naming certain aromatic plants. In fact, the name of the genus mentha mint is even older than the monetary mint; it has its roots in a word of non-Indo-European origin.
Finally, there's the Scottish mint, distantly related to the Old English word for "mind." This mint means everything from "intend" to "suggest" to "aspire" and "hint."
We won't mince words: we like hearing from you. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Shawn Dudley is our audio engineer. Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
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