Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Drachma
/ˈdrækmə/noun
The silver coin of ancient Greece and the currency of the modern Greek state until 2002.
The Greek roots
δράσσομαι
drássomai
to grasp, take a handful
Literally: “a handful”
Follow a root:δράσσομαι1 word
The story of the word
Before coinage, iron spits called ὀβελοί served as money, and a drachma was as many as one hand could grip, which is why six obols make one drachma rather than any round number. A bundle of such spits was dedicated at the Argive Heraion and is usually read as a record of that older system. The word wore down through Latin and French into English dram, so the drachma and the pharmacist's dram are one word at two weights, and Greece brought the name back in 1832 after independence.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
dramdrachm
In a sentence
My grandmother kept a jar of drachma coins that stopped being money in 2002.