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From: aa318@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (John Coughlin)
Subject: Re: The origin of "$", the dollar sign?
Message-ID: <D4Ex56.2up@freenet.carleton.ca>
Sender: aa318@freenet3.carleton.ca (John Coughlin)
Reply-To: aa318@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (John Coughlin)
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Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 17:41:30 GMT
Lines: 19

In a previous posting, Alan D Corre (corre@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu) writes:

                            [ deletia ]
>
> ... It seems to me possible that the dollar sign represents the
> original full name of the coin. So it really would be an S along with a bar
> as decoration -- as we have previously discussed with regard to the at-sign
> and the barred R of "recipe" in prescriptions.
> 
I missed the discussion of the Rx prescription symbol.  I am sure it is not
from the English "recipe".  It is an abbreviation of the Latin "radix".  It
makes more sense for two reasons: 1. apothecaries and other men of science
in the Europe of past centuries wrote in Latin; 2. many medicines were (and
still are) based on plant roots.
--
Flesh:  John Coughlin                       ___     __o
Net:    jcoughlin@acm.org                 ___     _`\<,
        aa318@freenet.carleton.ca          ___   (_)/(_)
Status: Mi hidrodeslizador esta' lleno de anguillas.
