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Cash usually refers to money in the form of liquid currency, such as banknotes or coins.
Etymology The English word cash is a borrowing of the French , itself a borrowing of the Provençal caissa. That Provençal word is a derivative of the Latin (box, chest), most likely by way of an unattested Vulgar Latin form Historical usage in Asia 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 7''s.'' 8''d.'' Bookkeeping and finance 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. See also | ||||||||
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