The things you learn: Bargeld

[pne]

According to Wikipedia, the first component of the German word Bargeld “cash” comes from the Greek βαρύς “heavy”, since originally money was in the form of (heavy, metallic) coins.

Edit: neither my Duden nor my dtv Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen support that claim; they both relate it to “bar” meaning “nackt; frei von; sofort verfügbar” (

Comments

[muckefuck]

I'd always assumed this element was cognate with English bare, i.e. "cash" = "naked money". What source do they cite?

[pne]

Sources? Surely you jest.

I had a look, though, and no particular source is cited for that paragraph, nor are there global sources given for the article.

See my edit to this entry; the two sources I consulted both agreed that the origin of "bar" in relation to money is "bare". (Though neither specifically gave an etymology for "Bargeld"; the etymologies are instead for "bar" as related to money.)

So you were right all along.