Was Looking Up The Etymology Of 'Cash' - And Found A Link To This Forum...

to the Community!

The OED says it may have started in the late 16th Century from the Latin or French, but I'm leaning more to Marco Polo and 12th Century travels bringing back the loanword. Or even earlier, the Romans traded with China and India via several routes of the Silk Roads. At any rate, the Portuguese were trading in Asia by 1588, which certainly matches the OED origin timeframe, if not the actual origin.

It's certainly makes a lot more sense that a Chinese word for money would directly become a western loanword for money, rather than very indirectly through two or three languages from words meaning 'box' or 'chest'. I think some etymology is conjecture, at times, and may have been a product of a Eurocentric outlook, rather than an honest attribution. The timelines certainly speak to the loanword being Chinese.