Where does “Cash” come from?
Cash comes from English case, which derives from Old French casse meaning "money box," from Latin cassa meaning "box."
Cash (English): Money in the form of notes or bills and coins, as opposed to checks, credit or electronic transactions
Definitions
- Money in the form of notes or bills and coins, as opposed to checks, credit or electronic transactions
Ancestry of “Cash”, step by step
Cash traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle French caisse
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | caisse | chest |
| 2 | Old Occitan | caissa | — |
| 3 | Latin | Capsa | Gafsa |
| 4 | Latin | capiō | to take, to capture, to catch, to seize, to take captive, to storm |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | kapiō | take |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | kapjō | take, seize |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | kh₂pyéti | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | keh₂p- | to seize, grab; to seize; take up; lift; to take,... |
via English cass
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | cass | To render useless or void; to annul; to reject;... |
| 2 | Middle English | cassen | To render useless or void; to annul; to shut down |
| 3 | Old French | casser | Alternative form of quasser; to break |
| 4 | Latin | cassō | to nought, to annul, to nullify, to cassate |
| 5 | Latin | cassus | hollow, empty, devoid of something; lacking;... |
| 6 | Latin | cadō | to fall, to fall out |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | kadō | fall, sink |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱad- | to fall |