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18 Oct 2013

...of Czech origin

There are many foreign words that we use in the Czech language...from English, French etc., but did you know that there are some words you use that actually come from the Czech language?
Here are two examples:

1. ROBOT

This word comes from the Czech word robota which means labour/drudgery/work and was first used by Karel Čapek in his science fiction play R.U.R - Rossumovi univerzální roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1920.
The play became famous (by 1923 had been translated into thirty languages), and the word 'robot' was introduced to the English language.




2. DOLLAR

Dollar comes from the Czech word Tolar, the Czech name for the silver coin mined in today's Bohemia * - silver mine in Jáchymov first minted coins in 1519.

* Until 1918, the town (named JOACHIMSTHAL before 1898) was part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), head of the district with the same name, one of the 94 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia - Wikipedia


 
 


Jáchymov thaler -souvenir


Later the name was used for similar coins minted in central Europe, Spanish peso and the Portuguese eight-real piece. An old slang term for the 25-cent coin is a piece of eight. The coin is still almost always called a quarter in everyday speech. The first US dollar was minted in 1794/75 and is known as flowing hair dollar from the image of a man with long flowing hair featured on the coin.

Flowing Hair Dollar


 

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