Of Monies and Monition

     The root “men-“ when externalized gives the meaning of being “mindful” of others, or reminding others. The latter has been known to be achieved by building monuments. The former is exactly reflected into the word “monitor”. When René Lesson came across a certain reptile who stood up on its two legs to scan its surroundings, he was reminded of his school days, and decided to call it a monitor lizard. This act “monitoring” is called, well, that, or admonition (for when you especially want to be hated). And if you’re a pro-monitor and adept at not having friends, you might even have developed a sixth-sense which tells you when an unruly child is about to be creative on your watch. It’s then called a premonition (“pre” is before and “mon-“ to think, or remind). But what if you still have a few friends left? You can tattle to the teacher of their doings so they are “reminded to be present at a certain time and place by an authority (or “summoned” made of “sub-” and “mon-“) and voila.

The evil connotations of “mon-“ go beyond Monuments and Men though. Aside from the fairly obvious monster (which is a personification of a reminder of bad times), the other is surprisingly unsurprisingly – “monies”. Amongst the earliest to mint money were the Romans. These mints were located on the Capitoline Hill in Ancient Rome, which happened to double-time as a temple dedicated to the patron goddess of Rome, “Juno Moneta”. “Moneta” was believed to be “oversee” or “monitor” Rome. The coins which came out of the Moneta mint (which itself is a corruption of “Moneta”), eventually came to be called "monies" and to “money”.

So, is money the root of all evil? Or is it the other way around?