Added 9 October 2026
euro
/ˈjʊəɹəʊ/ noun
In Latin: euro, euronummus, eurum Coined: 1995, by Germain Pirlot Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about euro at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- The basic monetary unit of most members of the European Union (introduced in 1999); in 2002 twelve European nations (Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Finland) adopted the euro as their basic unit of money and abandoned their traditional currencies.
Origin
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 Commission.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)