■ noun the basic monetary unit of the US, Canada, Australia, and certain countries in the Pacific, Caribbean, SE Asia, Africa, and South America.
Word History
The word ~ is associated primarily with the United States, but it has its origins far away, in central Europe. It comes from German Thaler , short for Joachimsthaler , a coin from the silver mine of Joachimsthal ('Joachim's valley'), now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. It later served as the English name for the peso or piece of eight formerly current in Spain and the Spanish-American colonies, which was widely used in the British North American colonies at the time of the American War of Independence. It was adopted as the name of the US monetary unit in the late 18th century.