Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A coin or note that is worth one dollar.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The English name of the large silver German coin called thaler: also applied to similar coins of the Low Countries and of Scandinavia; to the large silver coin of Spain, the celebrated “Spanish dollar,” or peso, also called pillar dollar (from its figure of the Pillars of Hercules) and piece of eight (as containing 8 reals); and later to a large silver coin succeeding the Spanish dollar in Spanish America.
  • noun The monetary unit or standard of value of the United States and Canada, containing 100 cents, and equal to about 4s. 1⅓d. English.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A silver coin of the United States containing 371.25 grains of silver and 41.25 grains of alloy, that is, having a total weight of 412.5 grains.
  • noun A gold coin of the United States containing 23.22 grains of gold and 2.58 grains of alloy, that is, having a total weight of 25.8 grains, nine-tenths fine. It is no longer coined.
  • noun A coin of the same general weight and value as the United States silver dollar, though differing slightly in different countries, formerly current in Mexico, Canada, parts of South America, also in Spain, and several other European countries.
  • noun The value of a dollar; the unit of currency, differing in value in different countries, commonly employed in the United States and a number of other countries, including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, parts of the Carribbean, Liberia, and several others.
  • noun See under 9th Chop.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a fish of the United States coast (Stromateus triacanthus), having a flat, roundish form and a bright silvery luster; -- called also butterfish, and Lafayette. See Butterfish.
  • noun a silver coin formerly made at the United States mint, intended for export, and not legal tender at home. It contained 378 grains of silver and 42 grains of alloy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Official designation for currency in some parts of the world, including Canada, Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Its symbol is $.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a United States coin worth one dollar
  • noun a symbol of commercialism or greed
  • noun a piece of paper money worth one dollar
  • noun the basic monetary unit in many countries; equal to 100 cents

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Low German daler, taler, from German Taler, short for Joachimstaler, after Joachimstal, (Jáchymov), a town of northwest Czech Republic where similar coins were first minted.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Attested since about 1500, from early Dutch daler, daalder, from German Taler, Thaler ("dollar"), from Sankt Joachimsthaler, coins minted in the Saint Joachim valley (Tal is German for "valley").

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Examples

  • Its currency would be higher in comparison to a sunken dollar, hurting exports, plus its U. S.-dollar denominated bonds would suffer large losses in value.

    Diane Francis: China's Dollar Scam Must End 2009

  • The Canadian dollar had been appreciating in recent weeks amid broad U. S.-dollar selling and higher prices for some commodities.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2010

  • "Canadian Currency Credits act as an effective price adjustment during this time when the Canadian dollar is close to U. S.-dollar parity," Joe Lawrence, Porsche Canada's president and chief executive said in a statement Monday.

    Edmonton Sun 2010

  • "Canadian Currency Credits act as an effective price adjustment during this time when the Canadian dollar is close to U. S.-dollar parity," Joe Lawrence, Porsche Canada's president and chief executive said in a statement Monday.

    Edmonton Sun 2010

  • "A stronger-than-assumed Canadian dollar, driven by global portfolio movements out of U. S.-dollar assets, could act as a significant further drag on growth and put additional downward pressure on inflation," the Monetary Policy Report said.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2009

  • He's only allowed to bask in the limelight flashing his million-dollar smile -- which is million$ of dollar$ for them as his agenda drains million$ of dollar$ from us. nv53, re Rick Salutin:

    small dead animals 2009

  • "A stronger-than-assumed Canadian dollar, driven by global portfolio movements out of U. S.-dollar assets, could act as a significant further drag on growth and put additional downward pressure on inflation," the Monetary Policy Report said.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2009

  • With us _half_ a dollar buys more than a _dollar_ buys with you -- and THEREFORE it stands to reason and the commonest kind of common-sense, that our wages are _higher_ than yours. "

    A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1872

  • With us _half_ a dollar buys more than a _dollar_ buys with you -- and THEREFORE it stands to reason and the commonest kind of common-sense, that our wages are _higher_ than yours. "

    A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 7. Mark Twain 1872

  • If the marginal utility of an additional dollar is declining, then to optimize utility (or happiness as the author puts it), take the less utilized dollar from a high income earner and give it to a more utilized lower income earner.

    Speaking of Rising Inequality, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

Comments

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  • In nuclear engineering, a dollar describes the "reactivity" of a nuclear reactor. For each reactor, 1 dollar is the reactivity at which the chain reaction is just self-sustaining. The size of the unit varies with the design of the reactor; a typical size is approximately 10-5 = 0.001%.

    November 6, 2007

  • The best etymology ever.

    November 8, 2007

  • I agree.

    Also a popular beat combo of the 1980's.

    November 8, 2007

  • Is that where the DDR songs like "Boom Boom Dollar" come from? I always thought that sounded strange.

    November 8, 2007

  • "At a time when other monarchs--or their minters--watered down coins to make them stretch further, the vast output of the Schwaz mine allowed Sigmund to mint a silver coin of unsurpassed purity. The coin featured an image of him holding a scepter and wearing a jaunty, oversized crown. The coins were a hit and earned him the name Signmund Rich in Coins. When a merchant received one of Sigmund's silver guldiners, he knew he could trust it. The popularity of the coin--weighing the same as six quarters--attracted imitators across Europe, including the German city of Joachimsthal. Joachimsthal introduced a coin of identical size and silver content, and called it the thaler. The Danes called their version the dollar. Three centuries later, Americans gave a nod to the Danes and ran with it. Sigmund loved his guldiners and Fugger gave him bags of the coins as gifts."

    --Greg Steinmetz, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger (NY and London: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 22

    February 6, 2017