Comments on: Moolah.

By: eh he

eh he — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 22:00:14 +0000

Don’t have to go that far. In Arabic, money is “mulla”.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 04 Aug 2019 13:46:23 +0000

Quite possibly it simply derives from the Arabic word for money ??? – which is pronounced “Mellah”.

By: Tuulikki Kyytsönen

Tuulikki Kyytsönen — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 10:07:31 +0000

Hamburg was and still is the biggest trading center for oriental carpets, partly coming from India. Harbour workers may have picked up the Hindi word “moolyah” for money and implemented it in their local language “plattdüütsch” (Lower Saxonian). A person boasting having money is called “mallig”.

By: Deborah Aydon

Deborah Aydon — Sat, 19 May 2018 16:55:19 +0000

It’s the Sudanese word for a stew/curry. A staple food. Is it to far-fetched to think that it originated with Americans of African descent, gravitating from food to the means of putting food on the table?

By: Angela White

Angela White — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 14:11:36 +0000

“Some slang doesn’t have an origin”? Just because we do not know the origin, does not mean there isn’t one.

The Sanskrit/Bengali mulla for price, value, worth, salary seems most plausible. Also the Hebrew ‘gmolah’ is probably a related word.

By: Wilma Wanda

Wilma Wanda — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 05:35:14 +0000

In Mozambique mollla means money( dinheiro) .

By: Jaswant Bhopal

Jaswant Bhopal — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:12:17 +0000

I am Indian, and I am familiar with Indian languages and English. I was educated in the UK from the age of 5 years. Many EnglIsh words come from India, via the British Raj. I know that mul” means price or value in Punjabi and Hindi. I can imagine an Englishman bartering in India, and asking how much “moolah”, meaning how much money. Sounds like a plausible origin of the word, more so than mules, donkeys and other unlikely suggestions.

By: sutapa sengupta

sutapa sengupta — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 20:34:51 +0000

moolah may come from sanskrit mulyah, which means price.
british could pick it from indian vernacular when they colonise india.

By: Neil Husher

Neil Husher — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 15:25:41 +0000

If not a slur in the past, it has become the favorite of conservative politicians with a wink and a sneer to name or pronounce “Mullah”, an Islamic theologian.

By: Lo

Lo — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:02:40 +0000

TL;DR: Don’t know the answer – guess there isn’t just one origin, since it’s a quite primitive word – words change – if you go down, be prepared!

Well, asking for an 100% true answer to the origin of a word, which is used in the US is quite hard – not the asking actually, but finding the answer…
There’s basically every ethnicity of the world in the US and with it languages, influences, cultures, yada yada yada.

Fortunately, there are some well preserved traces to most of the words origin, but sometimes there’s a word like ‘Moolah’, or is it ‘mula’? Or ‘mulla’ or even ‘moola’?!
(@thinkyhead: Ngram showed me results for ‘mula’ back in 1699, ‘mulla’ 1721, ‘Moolah’ 1763,’moola’ 1808, and last but not least ‘moolah’ 1815, whereas ‘mula’ was and is always king, except from ~1820-1840)

See, one of the first things when venturing out to find THE origin of a word is to know how do you spell the word correctly, in short, what to look for exactly.

And one of my most favorite – yet in this case somewhat hindering – features of the US mentality is – my so beloved – gemutlichkeit (note: following ramble isn’t just limited to the US rather applies to any country, culture, man, woman and other*):

Words get circumcised, letters disappear, syllables get swallowed, and meanings(!) change in a moment’s notice,…
It’s actually pretty great, and also necessary – considering lots of people, lots of languages, lots of (im-?!)proper pronunciation, spellings, school sucks anyways,… and the people just want to freaking talk to each other, chat about (idk) the weather (mayhaps?!) and don’t want to get held back by unnecessary ‘E’s, or ‘U’s or red necks or… I mean red coats… and so on and on and on and…
Language is vivid, it lives, breathes, it progresses (*now we have ze, and xe, and kee, and lee,… yay, more, and more more or less beautiful and meaningful and thoughtful words!), regresses, or just gresses at least a bittle (see, what I did there?), it’s the oldest organism, which is still alive!

So, back on topic…
Generally speaking, most of the common used words are pretty much known, since it’s a quite ordinary and documented origin.
But if you are looking for a word, which is composed of two of the simplest noises ever, a ‘moo’ sound and a ‘la’ sound, and you’re trying to find the one and only origin of the word, or rather the origin of the meaning we associate it with today, in the most cultural divers place on this very planet, I won’t say it’s impossible, but I wish you best of luck!
Just don’t be an agnorant bafoon!
The hole is deep, and it wasn’t dug by a rabbit.

Cheers, good luck and farewell,
Lo

By: Kava

Kava — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 11:49:15 +0000

The german [sl.] Mäuser (“mice”) means moolah, and is at least similar in pronunciation.

By: Lukindo

Lukindo — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 04:58:32 +0000

The Swahili word for God is Mola. I’ve been trying to trace it’s etymology a that’s how I got here. Although I haven’t come up with a definitive answer I do have a theory. The Swahili were an influential mercantile civilization on the East Coast of Africa. They had and still exibit strong connections to the Indian sub-continent as well as the Arabian Peninsula. As a mercantile civilization, money played a major role in their social structure. As such their religion may have centered around money. In other words, God’s blessing measured in wealth. The Swahili were also monotheistic, and practiced what is today seen as a form of Islam. They believed that Mola was one, hence the idea of a root.