Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A large silver coin current in various German states from the sixteenth century.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A former German silver coin worth about three shillings sterling, or about 73 cents, around 1900.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The monetary unit of Baden from 1829 to 1837, valued at 100 Kreuzer.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The dollar itself comes from the word thaler, which was a measurement of what an ounce of silver would entail, or a percentage of a gold piece would entail.

    inJesus :: Online Community :: Last posted message 2009

  • Mainly they hunted deer, for a dressed buckskin would fetch the equivalent of a German silver coin called a thaler (eventually, buck became synonymous with dollar).

    Great American Hunters: Daniel Boone 1999

  • Just at the time that they put their money in, the party that Minnie belonged to came by, and the gentleman put in a silver coin called a thaler, which is worth about seventy-five cents; so that Rollo had the satisfaction of seeing that one of the four millions of dollars was raised on the spot.

    Rollo on the Rhine Jacob Abbott 1841

  • European "thaler" coins from the 16th-18th centuries, with a modern quarter for comparison.

    Nathan Lewis: A Brief History of the Dollar 2009

  • In 1792, after the American Revolution, Congress adopted the European "thaler" or dollar as the standard in the new United States.

    Nathan Lewis: A Brief History of the Dollar 2009

  • Thus, the silver "thaler" system was also, in a sense, a gold system.

    Nathan Lewis: A Brief History of the Dollar 2009

  • A corruption of the German "thaler," a name for a silver coin worth about four shillings.

    Anson's Voyage Round the World The Text Reduced Richard Walter

  • From the German tradition of the Christmas tree to the Italian dish called spaghetti and the name of our currency, which was first minted as a thaler in Bohemia and transported by the Dutch to their colony of New Amsterdam which later became New York, immigrants continually add to our civilization.

    Alex Nowrasteh: 40 Million Reasons to Celebrate Alex Nowrasteh 2011

  • Le mot “dollar” est beaucoup plus ancien que la monnaie des Etats-Unis et provient du mot “thaler”, qui désignait des pièces de monnaie frappées à partir de 1519.

    Archive 2010-06-01 Rene Meertens 2010

  • The word “dollar” itself, is much older than the American currency, and is derived from the “thaler”, coins that were first minted back in 1519 from silver, mined in the town of Joachimsthal, which was located in the country then called Bohemia.

    “Money, money, money” (English) Rene Meertens 2010

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