Курсовая работа: Characteristic features of American English
real or bit. The small silver Spanish real (Spanish for "royal," from Latin regal, regal) was worth one-eighth of a peso or 12! /z cents. By 1683 we also called it a bit (from Old English bite, bit, morsel), which was an English term for any small piece of money, as in "six-penny bit," though this monetary use of the word bit was reinforced in America by the Spanish word pieca, piece, bit, which sounded like "bika" to many colonists. [10. p.184 ]
New United States currency was called federal money (1806), lawful money (1809), and specie dollars (1821) to distinguish it from the foreign coins still in circulation. [10. p.185 ]
From 1865 until 1933 the U.S. issued not only gold coins but paper gold certificates (an 1863 term, the year Congress first authorized them) which certified that the U.S. Treasury had deposited gold for their redemption. In 1933, when the U.S. was taken off the gold standard, gold coins were removed from circulation, gold certificates were called in, and our coins and paper money were declared legal tender. From 1878 until 1963 the government also issued silver certificates, paper money backed by silver dollars. Today, about 90 percent of our paper money is in Federal Reserve Notes issued through the twelve Federal Reserve Banks or "bankers' banks" created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 to establish a unified banking system. [10. p.187 ]
Some General Terms:
banknote, 1695 in England, originally as made out by a specific bank to a specific person. The shortened form, note, was first recorded in 1696.
bean, any coin, 1810. It came to mean specifically a $5 gold piece in 1859, then meant $1 by 1905.
bill meant a letter or a legal document in English by the 15th century (from Latin bulla, official seal, then a document bearing such a seal, which we still use in the term papal bull). By the late 16th century in England this "official document" meaning led to bill, which was used as a word for paper money.
cash, 1596 in England, when it also still meant money box, case (via French caisse, Italian cassa, cash box, merchant's case, from Latin capsa, box). Cash article, valuable or worth an amount of money, 1835; cash crop, 1868.
currency, 1699 as money in England, because it is the current, generally accepted medium of exchange (from Latin currential currere, to run).[10. p.192 ]
Since 1969 all U.S. currency in denominations over one hundred dollars has been withdrawn from circulation as the bills have come in to Federal Reserve Banks. A thousand dollars has been called a thou since 1869, a grand since 1900 (which was sometimes shortened to G by 1920), and a big one by the 1950s. The $10,000 Federal Reserve Notes were the highest currency ever in general circulation and, although the last ones were printed in 1944, about four hundred are still in private hands. The $100,000 gold certificates, with President Woodrow Wilson's likeness, were first issued in 1934 and were the highest denomination ever authorized in the world; however, they were never in general circulation, being for official transactions only (twelve of these are still in Federal Reserve Banks). Although U.S. currency has never come in larger denominations than this, it is, of course, possible to amass and talk about still larger amounts.
[10. p.202 ]
2.5. Mail
The British still speak of the post and of posting a letter while Americans are more apt to talk about the mail and mailing a letter (post came into English via the 15th-century French poste, station, from Latin positum, positioned, placed; mail has been in English since the 13th century, from Old High German malha, satchel, bag). Our use of post and postal thus goes back to our British colonial days; mail came later, with mail carrier in 1790, mail boat in 1796, mail pouch, and the mail, the U.S. Mail in the 1840s, and mail bag in 1867. Here are the dates of the first American colonial use of some British postal terms:
postal system, 1639, in Massachusetts. This first system was simple: incoming overseas mail was to be left at the home of Richard Fairbanks in Boston and he transmitted it for a penny a letter.
postal service, 1672, when a monthly service was started between New York and Boston, over what in 1692 became the Boston Post Road (a road for transporting mail). By 1790 the U.S. had 20,000 miles of post roads.
post office, 1683, when the first American one was established in Philadelphia. It gave us our first colonial use of the word postmaster, being one Henry Waldy, whose main duty was to supply horses and riders.
postmaster general, 1694, when the British crown appointed Andrew Hamilton postmaster general of all the colonies, to establish intercolonial service. People were soon talking about his post riders and post walkers (poor roads made them faster than wagons or carriages). [10. p.533 ]
These were the major British contributions to postal language. Benjamin Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and served as "co-deputy postmaster general" of the colonies from 1753 to 1774, when he was dismissed by the crown for being too pro-American. He got even with the British by being appointed the first postmaster general of the American postal system by the Continental Congress in 1775. Now American mail terms slowly began to take over:
mail coach, late 1780s (a British term); mail stage, from 1792.
Post Office Department, Americans used this term from its beginnings in 1782 until 1971, when it became the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency.
U.S. Postmaster General, 1789, when President Washington appointed Samuel Osgood as the first one, overseeing the nation's 75 post offices.
star route, 1820s, the route of a private contractor carrying mail for the post office where its own service didn't go (so called for the stars or asterisks printed next to such routes on the Post Office Department list).
post office box, 1833; general delivery, late 1830's.
Before 1847, U.S. postmasters printed their own postage stamps and supplied glue pots—the adhesive stamp wasn't invented until 1840, in England (the famous penny black being the first issue). Then on July 1, 1847, Congress authorized the first U.S. Postage stamps: a 5^ Franklin and a 10<£ Washington. Within fifteen years all Americans were simply calling them stamps and calling their value postage. At first, some Americans humorously called such an adhesive stamp a lick-and-stick. Postage still covered only the carrying of mail from post office to post office; there was not free home delivery.
overland mail, 1848, when the post office first started talking about a stagecoach mail service from Missouri to California, which overland stage service was begun in 1858.
registered mail', 1855, when the service began.
mail boy, 1862, to distribute and collect mail in offices, which were now growing rapidly in size and number.
In 1863, when many families were writing to and receiving letters from their men who were fighting the Civil War, there were two big innovations in the Union's mail service: (1) mail was divided into classes and postage was based on the class rather than the distance it was carried; (2) mail service now began to include free home delivery in cities. Before this everyone had to pick up and deposit his own mail at the post office (or in a primitive letter box) or pay a letter carrier (an 1825 term) a 2-cent fee for each letter he delivered or picked up. [10. p.534 ]
Now Americans began to use the new terms: