| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| zloty |
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| SYLLABICATION: | zlo·ty |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  zlô t |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. zloty or zlo·tys
See table at currency. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Polish z oty, golden, zloty, from zoto, gold. See ghel-2 in Appendix I. | | WORD HISTORY: | The ancient association between gold and money is reflected in zoty, the name for the basic unit of currency in Poland. In Polish zoty is a simple adjective meaning “golden” that derives from the neuter noun zoto, “gold.” This in turn comes from from a Common Slavic neuter noun *zolto, “gold.” The zol- in *zolto is a form of the Slavic root *zel–, “to shine, be bright,” from the Indo-European root *ghel–. By Grimm's Law, this became *gel– in Germanic, giving us eventually both Dutch gulden, “guilder” and English gold.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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