euro

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The unit of money used by most countries in the European Union. Symbol: €

   A coffee here costs about three euros.

2. 2
   noun

   A coin worth one euro.

   She dropped a euro into the busker's hat.

The name euro was the winner of a contest open to the general public to propose names for the new European currency, and as such is technically a neologism, although it obviously alludes to the common root of geographical names for the continent Europe, derived from Latin Europa, from Ancient Greek Εὐρώπη (Eurṓpē), the name in Greek mythology of a princess, abducted by Zeus as a bull across the Bosporus. According to the official story, the term was coined by Belgian teacher and esperantist Germain Pirlot in 1995, who suggested it in a letter to Jacques Santer, then President of the European C…

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