Etymologically
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Euro

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɔʏ̯ro/, [ˈʔɔʏ̯ʁo][1]

Forms

Euro m (genitive Euros or Euro, plural Euros or Euro)[1]

Etymology

It is a short form of Europa and europäisch, an artificial name rather than a regular clipping.[2][3][4] From about 1960 joint projects of several European states began to use the short form as the first element of their names, as in Eurocheque and Eurodollar, probably so as not to claim to stand for the whole of Europe and because the short form combines easily.[2][3] Kluge stresses that the currency name has no full form behind it, since the English phrase for a European currency unit was a description, not an official name.[2] The name displaced the planned Ecu, which was already in use as a unit of account and recalled old French coins with a shield on them.[2] Kluge thinks it would have been the happier choice.[2] The element itself goes back through Latin Eurōpa to Ancient Greek Εὐρώπη (Eurṓpē), the name of the continent.[4]

Semantic evolution

Kluge finds it not quite clear why German gave the currency masculine gender without hesitation, when the earlier Mark was feminine; the ending -o does not fix a gender.[2] The hundredth part, the Cent, was named after English cent, from Latin centum (“hundred”).[5] Derivatives include Euroland and euroweit.[5]

Timeline

  • About 1960 – Euro- becomes common as the first element of names of European projects.[2]
  • 1995 – Euro is proposed and adopted within the European Union as the name of the currency.[3][5]
  • 1999 – The currency unit is introduced under this name, according to Kluge.[2]
  • 1 January 2002 – Euro notes and coins become legal tender in most member states.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The euro, the currency unit of the European Monetary Union, divided into 100 cents; sign €: Das Ticket kostet zwölf Euro.[6][4][1]
  2. (feminine, colloquial) Die Euro: the European Football championship.[1]

Word family

  • Euroland

Usage notes

After a number the plural is usually Euro (zehn Euro), otherwise Euros.[6][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 263
  3. ^ a b c d Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  6. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag