Cowrie

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkaʊ.ɹi/

Definitions

1. A small spiral-shaped marine shell that was historically used as currency in Africa and Asia, or the mollusk that produces such a shell
2. A smooth, glossy marine gastropod shell historically valued as a medium of exchange in African and Asian trade systems, or the sea snail that secretes it
3. A shiny spiral mollusk shell from tropical seas that served as money in Africa and Asia, or the sea snail producing it

Etymology: The cowrie shell is a small, glossy, spiral-backed shell, and for centuries it was a currency. Across large parts of Africa and Asia, these shells were traded in such quantities that they functioned as money, and the English word for them came from the Hindi "kauṛī", a name for the same shell used in South Asian markets. English borrowed the word in the mid-17th century, when European merchants and travellers in the Indian Ocean trade were encountering the shells in daily commerce. The borrowing followed the shells themselves: the trade that carried them from the Maldives and other tropical sources to West Africa and beyond gave Europeans their first close view of a currency made from a sea snail's home.