ETYM Old Eng. moneie, Old Fren. moneie, French monnaie, from Latin moneta. Related to Mint place where coin is made, Mind, Moidore, Monetary.
1. The most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender.
2. The official currency issued by a government or national bank.
3. Wealth reckoned in terms of money.
Any common medium of exchange acceptable in payment for goods or services or for the settlement of debts; legal tender. Money is usually coinage (invented by the Chinese in the second millennium bc) and paper notes (used by the Chinese from about ad 800). Developments such as the check and credit card fulfill many of the traditional functions of money. In 1994 Mondex electronic money was introduced experimentally in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.
(Bodenkunde, Moorkunde) Süddt. Bez. für Moor.
ETYM Old Eng. mos; akin to AS. meós, Dutch mos, German moos, Old High Germ. mos, mios, Icel. mosi, Dan. mos, Swed. mossa, Russ. mokh, Latin muscus. Related to Muscoid.
(Irregular plural: mosses).
Tiny leafy-stemmed flowerless plants.
Small nonflowering plant of the class Musci (10,000 species), forming with the liverworts and the hornworts the order Bryophyta. The stem of each plant bears rhizoids that anchor it; there are no true roots. Leaves spirally arranged on its lower portion have sexual organs at their tips. Most mosses flourish best in damp conditions where other vegetation is thin.
The peat or bog moss Sphagnum was formerly used for surgical dressings. The smallest moss is the Cape pygmy moss Ephemerum capensi, only slightly larger than a pin head.