Synonyms of money (in English)

It seems that moolah+ is an American spelling; this link doesn't offer +moola+ as an alternative. +The New Yorker+ tends to be a little weird in some of its spelling. For example you won't find theater listings there; they will be shown under +Theatre listings instead.

I'm not sure it's linkable, but Safire covered just about all the ground in this thread, including Moola Moolah, in a 2003 NYT column.

"Mario Pei, the language-in-action philologist of years ago, was sure 'it was Chuck Green, a friend of Damon Runyon, who invented moolah.' The columnist Runyon, whose grasp of Broadway lingo was immortalized in the musical 'Guys and Dolls,' wrote in 1939, 'He is very desperate for a little moolah.'

"The origin is a mystery. The current spelling with an h, moolah, is shown by a database count to be preferred over the variant moola, which suggests that in pronunciation, the first syllable has no greater stress than the second. The word breaks into moo-lah."

So he takes moolah+ as more prevalent currently, but hardly dismisses -- as some here blindly have -- the use of +moola when you're at skoola.

So he takes moolah as more prevalent currently, but hardly dismisses -- as some here blindly have -- the use of moola when you're at skoola.

Wow! You really play rough, don't you? I never dismissed "moola"; I said "I've never seen it without the final h except in this thread."

Silver. Fortune tellers traditionally ask you to cross their palm with silver, but I'm pretty sure they are asking for money in any form. Used much less often than the common corresponding Spanish term "plata". "Gold" can used in the same way.

Brass. A much less valuable metal, but nevertheless used to mean money, notably in the saying "where there's muck there's brass", referring to the fact that since industrial processes tend to be unpleasantly dirty, those prepared to work in such conditions can make money.

Doubloons, etc. Coins popularly found in treasure chests in pirate stories, sometimes used to refer to money in general in a jocular or criminal context: "Where's the doubloons?" Other specific coins might be used in the same way, particularly obsolete ones - "He hadn't a groat to his name".

Folding stuff. Clearly specifically referring to money in note form.

Other slang words for money: ... cheddar, ... skrilla

Not come across those. Any explanation/context?

Clearly there are all sorts of words for money when paid as a bribe, etc, but I think that's wandering a bit far.

Thanks to everybody. It has been an interesting thread.

Other slang words for money: ... cheddar, ... skrilla
Not come across those. Any explanation/context?

These links may help:

Cheddar
Skrilla

The language at the Skrilla link, anillos, sounds like the speech of some black Americans; my guess is that most whites might not understand skrilla+ to mean money. At the Cheddar link, one of the definitions mentions +Ebonics, which is definitely black American English. Again, whites might not know the term.

@NorthAmerican (#16): Thanks for your clarifications. Most of the terms of this thread are new for me so I looked for more info about them by my own. That's some of the info I found about those terms that were unknown for, at least, another user too. I'm pretty sure the user that suggested them will be able to provide us further details about it; at least, about the context where they are used. Let's wait. BTW, in the meantime, this link about cheddar could be interesting.

I know both skrilla and cheddar from rap music. I agree not all white people would know them, but I'd guess most young people would, or even old 30-something farts like myself who like rap and/or have black friends.

Wonga and spondulicks were new to me.

My mum used to say spondulux way back in the 1960s, she was from Southern Ireland and I don't know where she got it from.
I've heard 'Let's go splash the cash,' in London, many times.
Small change is often referred to as 'shrapnel' which is a reference to the bits and pieces (of metal) that break off from a bomb when it explodes.
In the UK we use 'broke' (I'm broke, etc) for having no money at all.
Dosh was common when I was a kid (in London), we also used 'loot'.
Just remembered, I'm sure someone did a piece on TT about UK coins and what they used to be called when we (well, some of us) were kids. This is old UK money, pounds, shillings and pence,
a quarter of a penny was called a farthing,
half a penny was a hape-ney,
three pennies was a threpenny bit.
six pennies was a tanner,
a shilling was a 'bob' (five bob, ten bob etc),
2 shillings and 6d (we used d for 'pennies', I don't know why) was 'half-a-crown,
there was a guinea but I can't remember how much that was.

It was such fun! Now what do we call the stuff? Not much, I don't think, although I've been out of the UK for 6 years now so maybe someone can let me know....

Here in Spain I've heard 'pasta' used for money. Would be funnier, I guess, if I was in Italy, but never mind.
I also believe 'Estoy sin un duro,' was used in Spain to mean 'broke'. I think a duro was a 5 peseta coin and so it means I'm without a 5 peseta coin. I'm not sure how accurate I am with this so I'll await the 'real' Spanish speakers to correct me and let us know what they say now the euro is in place?

(we used d for 'pennies', I don't know why

Wasn't it from the Latin "denari"? Yup -- just found this:
In the Roman Empire 12 denarii were rated equal to 1 gold solidus – a 4th century Roman coin that was rare but which still circulated; and, since 240 denarii were cut from one Roman libra of silver valued at 1 gold solidus, 240 denarii therefore equalled one pound in Britain (also livre in France, peso in Spain etc.) The English name pound is a Germanic adaptation of the Latin phrase libra pondo 'a pound weight'.

I think a guinea was 21 shillings. I thought six pennies were sixpence? Reading more on the net, I see it was indeed called a tanner, but we didn't use that word. Mind you, I was very young when we left England.