Talking business

Elaine Saunders takes us on an intriguing journey back in time to discover how some of our favourite, and not so favourite, business terms first came about

Business and financial jargon is so much a part of our everyday speech that we give little thought to its derivation. We may assume that the information age gave us our buzzwords but the lingua franca of business is considerably older. Many words have surprising derivations - from church to battleground - and together they provide an interesting commentary on our modern commercial world.

Cheques and cheats

Britain's Exchequer, at almost a thousand years old, is a rich source of jargon.

To keep track of the King's finances, court officers, or escheators, used pebbles on a checked cloth as an abacus, so calculations came from the check. Bills drawn against the court were cheques and the infamous dishonesty of escheators gave us the concept of cheating.

For an illiterate population, any record needed to be easily interpreted. Hazel sticks carved with different sized notches were split lengthways into identical halves. The person advancing money to the King took one (the stock or foil) and the court retained the other (counterfoil). These tally sticks (after the French tallier, to cut) existed until 1834 and the clerks were talliers or tellers.

Bank and bankrupt

Although not as old as the exchequer, banks have existed as financial institutions from the 15th century. Italian merchants conducted business across a trading bench, or banca, and the term soon described any venue for financial dealings.

If the merchant's business failed, his goods were seized and his bench rotta, or broken. From old Italian, banca rotta became anglicised to bankrupt.

'Broke', as in financially embarrassed, has a different derivation. Sixteenth century European banks issued early credit cards; small ceramic tiles embossed with a credit limit. The customer presented the tile with each request for funds but, if he exceeded his limit, the teller broke the tile.

Brokers had nothing to do with broken tiles, however. Broke in this case comes from broach, the spike used to open wine barrels. Broachers bought the wine to sell it on and eventually a broacher or broker was the name given to any middle man.

Called to account

In the Middle Ages, the clergy were often the only literate men in the district and so acted as secretaries or clerks to their wealthy patrons. The American pronunciation of klurk is a residue of this connection and, up until the 17th century, a clerk could be either a record keeper or a clergyman.

Written accounts were therefore useless and the practice evolved of presenting them verbally. As Latin was the language of the church these hearings were called auditus or audits and cathedrals had audit rooms for transacting business.

It would be another 200 years before the first use of the word 'accountant' in 1539. From old French à (to) and cunter (count), an accountant became a professional keeper of financial records. Any words to do with calculation come from the same root, such as compute and comptroller.

To coin a phrase

When the Norman French invaded Britain in 1066, they imported their own coins, small silver pennies impressed with a star. Norman French for small star was esterlin, which by 1124 had become sterling.

As coins were minted from precious metal, the edges were often clipped to steal some of their value, so they were weighed rather than counted. Two hundred and forty esterlin weighed exactly a pound, which gave rise to the pound sterling. (And also the reason behind 240 pennies to the pre-decimal pound.)

Another imported coin gave the United States its own currency. The Joachimstaler came to Britain from Czechoslovakia in the 16th century, the name later shortened to taler. Scottish settlers in America noted the resemblance between the taler and the Spanish peso in popular use, and gave it the same name.

By 1785, the pronunciation had evolved still further and Thomas Jefferson recommended to Congress that the dollar become the official unit of currency. He even used the French word dixieme for a tenth of a dollar, which eventually became disme and then dime.

Some say the dollar sign is the letters U and S superimposed or even T and S (Jefferson's initials). Another theory relates back to the Spanish peso, which was often cut into eight pieces called bits to make small change (and the pirate's parrot's cry of pieces of eight). The $ sign is therefore thought to be a figure eight cut through.

Where there's muck'

Coins, however, were for the wealthy whilst the rest of the population relied on barter. Livestock formed the most valuable commodity for most families and many wealth-related words have their origins in the farmyard.

Capital, chattel and cattle share a root that harks back to old French and literally means wealth from livestock. Old coins carried the head of sheep or oxen as a sign of their value and, as Latin for livestock is pecus, we now use pecuniary when describing monetary transactions.

So few coins could be contained in a small bag or bougette, so budget came to mean total wealth. This lack of ready money and the use of barter ensured most transactions were conducted face to face so financial dealings were restricted to small localities or were purely personal.

For example, economy comes from the Greek for household management, and its wider sense of political economy was unknown until 1651. Even investment was a closely personal term. The original Latin meant to clothe and this has survived in reference to clerical vestments or robes of office. Over the centuries, it developed to include changing clothes and eventually to change in general. By the 13th century, Italians used it to describe the alteration of one form of capital to another; the meaning picked up in England in the 1500s when huge sums were committed to the East Indies trade.

Battling on

The corporate world is still a battlefield so it's no surprise that many phrases have military associations.

Company is a combination of com (together) and pnis (bread) and translates as a group breaking bread together. Until the 13th century, it solely described a band of soldiers but then the British trade guilds adopted it for their new livery companies. Three hundred years later it was in general commercial use.

Marketing relies on targets, strategy and branding, all of which originate on the battlefield. A targe was a light shield used by German forces and failure to meet modern targets still results in being shot at. Stratgi described the Greek office of a general responsible for formulating battle plans, and this lead to its application to any planned course of action.

Branding is essential in these televisual times to burn a company name into the public consciousness. A brand was originally a lighted torch or sword (hence brandish a weapon) and slogan is no less combative. Sluagh-ghairm is a Gaelic phrase for shouting multitude or battlecry, and although it wouldn't satisfy modern copywriters, it served the Scottish Clans well.

Any other business?

Of all the definitions, perhaps the meaning of business itself is the most telling in today's times. It originated in old English Northumbrian dialect and described anxiety or care.

How little changes!

Elaine Saunders is a writer and journalist.