Gramer Girl here, I'm Mignon Fogarty, and you can think of me as your friendly guide to

the English language, writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today, to quote unquote, celebrate tax day in the United States, we'll talk about slang

words for money.

And then, because many of the major world religions will be celebrating real holidays, or holy

days soon, I'll answer some common questions about religious words.

April 15th is almost here, and for listeners in most of the world, it'll be just another

day.

But for those of us in the U.S., April 15th is tax day.

So today, we're going to talk about the various words we use for taxes and money.

There are a lot of them.

They say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes.

And although taxation hasn't been around as long as death, it does have quite a history.

In ancient Greece, there were taxes on consumption.

In other words, you paid a tax on the things you bought.

In ancient Rome, there were consumption taxes, as well as import taxes, real estate taxes,

and head taxes.

A tax you pay for having a head.

In other words, for existing.

And well before that, in ancient Egypt, taxes were levied even before money existed,

back when all transactions were a form of barter.

The governors of the time simply walked among the people's fields, assessed their crops

...