Shekels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A basic unit of money in modern Israel used in transactions ; a silver coin that was used in ancient times as currency in the Middle East
2. The official currency unit of Israel for everyday financial exchanges ; a historic silver coin once circulated in ancient Israel and nearby regions
3. Money used in Israel today as their official currency ; a type of silver coin that served as money in ancient biblical times

Etymology: "Shekels" is the plural of "shekel", and the singular word is a weight before it is a coin. The Hebrew "shékel" comes from "shakál," meaning "to weigh," and the Akkadian "šiqlum," a unit of weight, reaches back into the older Mesopotamian world that gave Hebrew many of its measures. Money in the ancient Near East was reckoned by weight of silver before coins existed, so a shekel was first a quantity of metal on a balance, and only later a named piece of currency. The modern Israeli shekel takes its name from that ancient unit, a deliberate revival of an old measure rather than an accident of usage. The word therefore carries its original sense of weighing inside a contemporary banknote, and the plural simply counts out those units of account.

Synonyms: money, currency, cash, funds, wealth