[Ads-l] "50l." (was: Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba)

Martin Purdy 00000bd8cf391c5b-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Thu Apr 8 17:53:54 UTC 2021


Yes - and in predecimal times in at least some Italian territories (and France) a 240-20-12 L-s-d system applied too (lira-soldo-denaro and livre-sol-denier respectively), all from the same Latin base as "our" £sd.
Martin 
 

    On Friday, April 9, 2021, 01:02:42 AM GMT+12, Pete Morris <mr_peter_morris at outlook.com> wrote:  
 
 In fact, the pound sign £ is an ornate letter L.

The old money, pre decimal,  was expressed as LSD,
meaning pounds, shillings, pence.

Interesting anecdote. I'm British and so my money symbol
was always £.  In 1987 I took a holiday in Italy. Pre-Euro,
their currency was the lira, which used a symbol almost
the same as £. But the exchange rate was 2050 lira to the
pound. First day I arrived in Italy, I went for a pizza, and
I looked at the menu and saw that a simple mushroom
pizza cost £3,500, I almost had a heart attack.  It took me
a while to work out that it was less than two pounds.

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
  

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list