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Cash usually refers to money in the form of liquid currency, such as banknotes or coins.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Etymology 3 Historical usage in Asia 4 Bookkeeping and finance 5 References 6 See also

The English word cash is of the French caisse, itself a borrowing of the Provençal caissa. That Provençal word is a derivative of the Latin capsa (box, chest), most likely by way of an unattested Vulgar Latin form *capsea; Spanish caja and Portuguese caixa are their respective languages' reflexes.^{[1] [2]} From the original sense of a box or a chest, the word came to refer to a sum of money such as was or might be contained in one, and eventually to specie or, with the elimination of metallic standards, banknotes.^[1] In this sense, it is used in contrast to credit or other financial instruments.

Etymology: from Sanskrit karsa, a weight of gold or silver but akin to Old Persian karsha-, a weight. a unit of value equivalent to one cash coin.

The word was formerly used also to refer to certain low-value coins used in South and East Asia. This sense derives from the Tamil kāsu, a South Indian monetary unit. The early European representations of this Tamil word, including Portuguese caxa and English cass, merged the existing words caixa and cash, which had similar connections with money. In the pre-1818 South Indian monetary system, the cash was the basic coin, with 80 cash equalling a fanam and 42 fanams equalling a star pagoda worth roughly 7s. 8d.^[3]

This assimilated Tamil word was then applied to various other coins with which European traders came into contact, including the famous holed cash coins of China, the Chinese cash. Also called wén, these coins were commonly strung on cords for use in larger transactions; 1000 equalled a tael.^[3]

In bookkeeping and finance, cash can also refer to checks, money orders, cashier's checks, bank drafts, or traveler's checks. In all these forms, the term indicates the most liquid form of assets, which have a fixed value and can be easily converted to currency: "ready money". For example, wages or salaries paid as "cash" (as opposed to, e.g., stock options) would in most countries normally be paid with checks or direct bank deposits, which are trivially convertible to currency.

1. ^ ^{a b} "Cash, n.¹". OED Online.
2. ^ Bloch, Oscar, and Walther von Warthburg (Dirs.). (2002). "Caisse". Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française (1er édition «Quadrige»). Paris: Presses universitaires de France.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Cash, n.²". OED Online.

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