moidore

Where does the word "moidore" come from? It comes from Latin moneta, passing through Portuguese before entering English (1700s).

Moidore’s story begins in Latin: moneta meant “mint, coin.” Moneta was a title of the goddess Juno, and Rome's mint stood by her temple on the Capitoline, so her name came to mean coin (and gave English 'money' and 'mint'). By 1600s, the word had taken hold in Portuguese as moeda d'ouro. 'coin of gold'; after gold was struck in Brazil's Minas Gerais in the 1690s, a flood of Brazilian gold passed through Lisbon's mint. It reached English by 1700s as moidore. The 1703 Methuen Treaty tied English cloth to Portuguese wine, and trade surpluses drew so much Portuguese gold to Britain that moidores circulated widely, especially in Ireland. Today, moidore means a former Portuguese gold coin, once current in Britain and Ireland.

1. Stage 1 · Latin · classical moneta "mint, coin", Moneta was a title of the goddess Juno, and Rome's mint stood by her temple on the Capitoline, so her name came to mean coin (and gave English 'money' and 'mint').
2. Stage 2 · Portuguese · 1600s moeda d'ouro "gold coin", 'coin of gold'; after gold was struck in Brazil's Minas Gerais in the 1690s, a flood of Brazilian gold passed through Lisbon's mint.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1700s moidore "Portuguese gold coin", the 1703 Methuen Treaty tied English cloth to Portuguese wine, and trade surpluses drew so much Portuguese gold to Britain that moidores circulated widely, especially in Ireland.