Obole

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small silver coin used in ancient Greece as part of their currency system ; a minor payment or donation, often symbolic in nature
2. An ancient Greek coin of limited value used for minor transactions ; a small sum given as a contribution or gift
3. A low-value coin from ancient Greece often used in everyday trade ; a token amount given as an offering or a small payment

Etymology: The ancient Greek "obolos" was originally a sharpened iron spit or rod, and its jump from kitchen metal to coin is one of the more curious shifts in the language. According to the old tale, early Greek trade used iron spits as a unit of value, and a handful of them, the "drachma" (a fistful), came to name a larger unit. The smallest common silver coin, worth one-sixth of a drachma, kept the name "obolos" and became the standard petty coin of the Greek world. The English word arrived by way of French "obole," which kept the Greek sense of a small coin or token. Its close relatives in English are "obol" and "obolus," which are doublets, meaning they came into the language along different routes from the same Greek source, and "pul," a small copper coin of Afghanistan and neighbouring regions that followed a separate path.

Synonyms: coin, currency, token