Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader learnt himself something today thanks to the glories of Albert Gore’s agical interwebs…
For many years your Maximum Leader has known that the ancient unit of currency known as a “denar” was of Macedonian origin. The “denar” (which your Maximum Leader has sometimes seen rendered as “dinar”) was a silver coin and was the basis of Macedonian currency.
The “denar” was often used with other “denar” and the plural “denarii” is the more common word in English. Not that the word is all that common; rarely do Americans (or other Anglophones) go talking to one another about being short a few “denarii” this week. Unless, of course, you are the sainted mother of your Maximum Leader. In which case she liberally sprinkles the word into conversation about money and the cost of things. (ie: “That antique tea service in the drawing room but me back a few denarii.” or - your Maximum Leader’s favourite - “How nice of you to telephone. You must be short a few denarii and are grovelling for a loan.” NB: Your Maximum Leader hasn’t called his sainted mother for a loan for quite a while… A long while at that…)
Anyhoo…
All that stuff is knowledge that your Maximum Leader already knew. What he learned today was that in Roman times the latinized “denarius” had become the norm for referring to multiple “denar.” What he also learned today is that the exchange rate used to set the value of “denarius” was the price of purchasing ten donkey’s. Some etymologists actually suggest that the latin word “denarius” is less related to the older greek “denarii” but more related to the value of a Roman coin that could be used to purchase ten donkey’s or “asses.”
Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure he buys all that, but it is interesting enough to make a blog post out of.*
Carry on.
This blog entry was not fact-checked in any way and should not be taken by some high-school or college kid writing a term paper as authoritative. Your Maximum Leader, while prone to speaking ex cathedra from time to time, is not not writing authoritatively at this point. He suggests checking a real dictionary or encylopaedia or something…
Of further interest… Your Maximum Leader is authoritatively pronouncing Miss Jennifer Love Hewitt not just lovely but, in fact, dreamy.
That is all.
Carry on.
