Etymograph

English

money

Money comes from Anglo-Norman muneie ‘money’, from Latin monēta ‘mint; money’, from Monēta, an epithet of Juno, in whose temple in Rome coins were minted.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEMonēta1‘epithet of Juno’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmonēta1‘mint; money, coinage’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400muneie1‘money’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500moneye1‘money’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1828money1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English money
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology: “After his marriage, John made a progress through the…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEMonētaWiktionary, English money‘epithet of Juno’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmonētaWiktionary, English money‘mint; money, coinage’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400muneieWiktionary, English money‘money’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500moneyeWiktionary, English money‘money’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1828moneyWiktionary, English money. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology: “After his marriage, John made a progress through the…”

The story

In this sense, displaced native Old English feoh, whence English fee.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with money, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *men-

  • music ← musik ← musik ← mūsica ← μουσική
  • mind ← minde ← mynd ← *mundi ← *mundiz
  • comment ← coment ← coment ← commentum
  • amount ← amounten ← amonter ← amont ← mont
  • mental ← mentālis ← mēns ← *mentis ← *méntis
  • remain ← remainen ← remaneō ← maneō ← *m(V)nēō
  • museum ← Μουσεῖον ← Μοῦσᾰ
  • mouth ← mūþ ← *munþ ← *munþaz ← *mn̥-tó-s
  • mountain ← mountayne ← muntaine ← montānia ← montem
  • mention ← mencioun ← mentiōnem ← mentiō ← meminī
  • auto ← automatic ← automaticus ← automatum ← αὐτόμᾰτον
  • min ← myne ← *muni ← *muniz ← *gaminþiją

158 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun A generally accepted means of exchange.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “money”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin Monēta / money