Etymology
The Chinese term for "New Taiwan Dollar" (新臺幣 or 新台幣, literally "New Taiwan Currency") typically is only used for banking and in legal contracts where it is necessary to avoid any possible ambiguity, or when talking about foreign exchange or other currencies.
In common usage, the dollar unit is typically referred to as yuán. In Taiwan, the character for yuán can be written in either of two forms, an informal 元 or a formal 圓, both of which are interchangeable.
Colloquial alternatives for the currency unit include the Mandarin kuài (塊), meaning "piece", and the Taiwanese Minnan kho͘ (箍 ; literally "circle").
In English usage the New Taiwan Dollar is often abbreviated as NT, NT$, NT Dollar or NTD, while the abbreviation TWD is typically used in the context of foreign exchange rates. Subdivisions of a New Taiwan Dollar are rarely used, since practically all products on the consumer market are being sold at whole dollars.
Read more about this topic: New Taiwan Dollar
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)