2356: piastre May 31, 2021

A number of the names of currencies used around the Middle East originated in Italy, and in particular Venice. Along with 'dinar' and 'lira', it is the 'piastre' which is used for the ultimate subdivision for the currencies of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, both Sudans, Syria, Turkey, and until 2007 Cyprus. All of these have currencies with a local 'pound' except for Jordan (dinar) and Turkey (lira). It was also used as the main currency of French Indochina. The name for this though comes from Italian, literally "thin metal plate" and basically equated to a peso (i.e. 1/8 of a coin). Due to trading with the Venetians and its adoption by the Ottomans, it is now used all over the Levant region. Many of these only nominally use the piastre since the currency itself is so weak, such as Lebanon which rarely even uses its ل.ل.100 coin. Also, all of these are decimalized except for Cyprus which subdivided into 180.

2044: dinar Jul 20, 2020

Lots of Arab countries use the Lira as currency because of Italian use in trade, and this is mostly true of the dinar. In Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as Serbia and North Macedonia the dinar is used, but in the case of all former Yugoslav states динар and the rest this comes from Arabic دِينَار‎. 'Dinar' itself though stems back further to the Latin 'dēnārius' meaning 'ten each' once used in the Roman Empire. Other Muslim-majority states have used over the years as well.

Watch the latest video.

Get Word Facts Merch.

Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts