Denar

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A silver coin used in ancient Rome as a standard unit of money ; the basic monetary unit of North Macedonia today
2. An old Roman silver coin that served as a common unit of currency ; the official money of the modern state of North Macedonia
3. A silver piece of money minted in the Roman Empire ; the currency circulating in North Macedonia in the present day

Etymology: The Roman silver coin that gave its name to the denar was itself a modern-sounding unit of money: "denarius" was the standard silver piece of Rome for centuries, and its name came from the Latin "deni," meaning "ten each," because one denarius was originally worth ten bronze asses. That numerical origin is what lets a single Latin word spread across so many modern currencies. The English word "denar" was borrowed directly from Macedonian, where "денар" (denar) is the name of the modern currency of North Macedonia. Macedonian in turn took the word from Latin "dēnārius," so the English form arrives by a route that bypasses the usual French and Italian channels that gave us words like "denier" and "diner." Those cousins are doublets: each descends from the same Latin coin name but was shaped by a different language's sound patterns and history. The English "denar" thus preserves the Roman coin's name through a Balkan currency rather than through the western European monetary tradition.

Synonyms: denarius