December 31, 2001

4:59 PM

Euro the new European currency is now official in 12 European countries. In Crete the ancient home of Europa who was a Kings daughter abducted by Zeus, Europa gave Zeus 3 sons and he in turn promised to name a continent after her. Now Europa has a currency as well. In Italy it may not mean love but it does mean cheaper sex. Tonight the ATMs are restocked and even Monopoly money is reprinted.
posted by stbalbach (8 comments total)

I saw the Germans have a funeral procession and a burial for the Deustch Mark. Very surreal.
posted by riffola at 5:08 PM on December 31, 2001

La Libération has a pop-up (no pop-up code at MeFi) with links to audio clips of the word «euro.»

In English, it's yuro. In Spanish, its eh-ooro. In Greek, it's ezro. And in french its, rr-ro.
posted by rschram at 5:51 PM on December 31, 2001

It's worth pointing out that Europe doesn't have a common licence plate and that there is free movement of labour throughout the EU.
posted by jackiemcghee at 6:00 PM on December 31, 2001

The drachma (don't know if this is the right spelling, have just come back from a party) has been around in Greece since the 7th century BC. Now that's a poignant moment if ever there was one. The word Euro is horrible in all its forms and I'm hopìng slang will soon arrive.
As a friend of mine said, we're going to be on holidays for the next few weeks, looking hazily at what we have in our hands and wondering what it's worth. Just as well we're all on holidays.
Another piece of history. The word peseta comes from Catalan and not Spanish. It's the diminutive of peça, a piece of metal. Why this is so is too long to explain here but anyway it's only about 150 years old so it's not like the drachma, but there's an awful lot of slang going to be lost. Will they still call money dotvers in Majorca?
posted by Zootoon at 6:57 PM on December 31, 2001

I remember back when they were calling it the European Monetary Unit.

EMU. It'll never get off the ground.
posted by Ptrin at 8:11 PM on December 31, 2001

I find it amusing that the standard measurement for the value of a euro is the Big Mac (as detailed in the last of stbalbach's links), aka the Tool of American Cultural Imperialism.
posted by darukaru at 9:35 PM on December 31, 2001

€ K w/ me!
posted by Down10 at 2:03 AM on January 1, 2002

rschram, in Greek, it's "evro". And I guess I should say now that the word "euro" is of greek origin. Just so that you all know ;-)
posted by kchristidis at 1:32 PM on January 8, 2002