batz

See also: Batz

English

Etymology

From German Batz, Batze, Batzen (“a coin bearing the image of a bear”).

Noun

batz (plural batzes or batzen)

1. (historical) A batzen (former small copper coin from Germany and Switzerland)
   • 1874 June 6, John Ruskin, “Letter XLIV”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume IV, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, pages 166–167:

     In old times, if a Coniston peasant had any business at Ulverstone, he walked to Ulverstone; spent nothing but shoe-leather on the road, drank at the streams, and if he spent a couple of batz when he got to Ulverstone, "it was the end of the world." But now, he would never think of doing such a thing! He first walks three miles in a contrary direction, to a railroad station, and then travels by railroad twenty-four miles to Ulverstone, paying two shillings fare.

References

• “batz”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.