Aerarium

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A place for storing money or treasures, often associated with state funds or public treasures
2. An ancient term referring to a treasury or a location where valuables are kept safe
3. A designated space in Roman culture where financial resources and wealth were managed and preserved

Etymology: The Roman state treasury was called the "aerarium," and the name points to bronze rather than gold. The word comes from "aes," meaning copper or bronze, the metal used for Rome's earliest coinage, and the suffix "-arium" marks a place where something is kept, as in "library" or "granary." So the treasury's name literally meant something like "bronze store," a reminder that Rome's public money was once counted in bronze. The term was used for the state's central financial reserves, which were kept in the temple of Saturn in the Forum, and it remains the Latin name that English borrowed for a public or official treasury. Because English took it directly from Latin, the word carries the institutional sense of a government's holdings rather than a private hoard.

Synonyms: treasury, exchequer, coffer, fund, reserve