Friday, August 04, 2017
Gumpting money
Reading something about the push to eliminate paper cash... Remembered a bad period 20 years ago when I was dead broke and had to pay for everything with credit cards. After I got work again, I pulled all the way out of debt and swore I'd never use a credit card for credit again. (Debit cards are unavoidable for online purchases.)
I always pay paper cash in stores now, partly because it's fast and certain, partly to remind myself that I'm firmly SOLVENT and don't need the bad old credit.
SOLVENT. Seems like a completely inappropriate word for 'got money'. How did that happen?
The etymology is beautiful.
The original Latin solvere meant 'loosen, untie knots, split apart.'
The chemical meaning of solvent is literal.
The most common meaning is untying the knot of a problem. Latin solve = Greek analyze = determine where to cut the rope. Slightly less literal but still easy.
Solvent as 'got money' was later and more metaphorical. Around 1600 when banks and currencies started to branch away from gold, solvent came to mean able to cut the ropes of debts, able to clean up obligations.
Beautiful. It's not just having bucks, it's the economic form of gumption. It's active. See a debt, untie it and dissolve it before it chokes you.
Labels: Language update, Real World Math, se-lu
¶ 2:12 PM
