Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
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Eugene:
May 17th, 2009 at 12:56 am
I propose the Spanish word Mula, pronounced Moolah. In all Spanish-speaking countries a mule was, and still is, as good as cash, as camels were and are for the Arabs. In Venezuela “Bájate de la mula” (get down off your mule) means “pay up”.
james:
March 11th, 2010 at 5:24 am
Moolah is a coruption of the god Moloch. The hefty sacrifice of children to the fire. Just as holy moley is also a corruption of Moloch.
gruff:
April 17th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
In P?li, the language of the early Buddhist scriptures, “m?la” means both “root” and “money”. Coincidence?
gruff:
April 17th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
that’s “Pali” and “mula” with macrons over the first vowel
Pradeep:
October 5th, 2010 at 5:48 am
I’ve been trying to find the “roots” of “moolah” for quite some time now. Eugene’s theory is the most appealing I’ve ever read thus far. Have I finally come to the end of my quest?
Ben:
October 14th, 2010 at 9:28 am
moolah or mula has to have come from the spanish word donkey
Jon:
February 16th, 2011 at 9:12 am
Actually, he is not one of the signers of the Constitution, from Wikipedia:
“Gerry was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who refused to sign the Constitution because it did not then include a Bill of Rights.”
Jon:
February 16th, 2011 at 9:13 am
Oops, too many websites about “Moolah” open at once, that comment was supposed to go to a different board, please delete/ignore.
Jon:
February 16th, 2011 at 9:33 am
Actually, I know this article is from a couple years ago, but you might be interested to know that there is a new take on the origins of “Moolah” according to some (one lone politician in Texas) Moolah originated as an insulting slang term against Italians and was then used against Blacks (I’m not sure if his theory is it was used against African-Americans, Africans, or which demographic). According to him though, it is now a thoroughly racist term:
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/15/john-wiley-price-dallas-county-commissioners-go-to-hell/
I do have to admit, this is the same guy who found the term “Black Hole” to be racist, so his etymology skills might be a wee bit off.
kleto:
April 14th, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Moolah or mula is not the Fijian word for money – the Fijian word money is ilavo.
Melanie:
April 29th, 2011 at 7:53 am
I like Eugene’s response….
“Bájate de la mula”
PG13:
June 27th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
‘Mol’ meaning value is used in Hindi and Urdu in India almost exclusively. It may have come from ‘Mula’ from Pali and Sanskrit as gruff (above) suggested.
Also in some South Indian languages ‘mulla’ means money or valuables, and is use such in many expressions.
I’ve always thought it came from Hindi or Urdu, but seems like the origin is much older to Pali and Sanskrit.
It may have made it to the European languages during the Colonial times.
Villainesse:
June 28th, 2011 at 2:32 am
Since Roman(/Spanish), Hindi, and Sanskrit(Buddhist?) are deeply related languages, it is possible the above options have the same ancient root.
But, it is extremely easy to imagine gamblers using the “bajate de la mula” demand and just shortening it right into our modern slang.
John:
July 16th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Some slang words don’t even have an origin.
Andre Harris:
July 29th, 2011 at 12:37 am
the very spelling of Moolah tends to suggest that it came from somewhere like India, so I think that considering what Gruff and PG 13 said it probably comes from One of the languages of Old India and was brought back by people of the British Raj. It suggests like it is related to some indo-european term.
alexander macrae:
August 10th, 2011 at 10:52 am
Romany for money is Wonga – a not dissimilar word. The origins of the Romany language have been traced to South India.
The Spanish also sounds right – but why just ‘mula’ – why not ‘mulas’, and why does it not linger on in that usage somewhere, or appear in stories from the past?
Yael:
August 13th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
This feels like the sort of thing that would have been researched by now, so I feel a bit wary of pointing out what may very well be a dud, but in Arabic the word “mal” (pronounced with a long A) means “money, property”; and while “mal” itself seems a bit far from “moolah”, the root of that word is M-W-L, and that W does appear in related forms, such as the plural “amwal”, or the verb “mawwala” (to finance), or the participle “mumawwal” (rich). And going from “amwal” (or similar forms) to “moolah” does not feel all that far-fetched to me. Then again, many false etymologies don’t…
Jeffrey:
September 27th, 2011 at 2:04 am
One finds the same meaning but with a different orthography in Damon Runyon where potatoes are often referred to as moolouw. Yet, nothing on Google.
Andrew:
December 20th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
buckaroo is definitely from spanish vaquero. cowboys have loads of spanish words in their vocabulary.
Lamont E. Lewis:
March 21st, 2012 at 1:34 pm
While we’re casting our lines for an origin, why not just look for the holy grail or Noah’s Ark? I think they have something in common: None exists. You’re going from India to Fiji on this thing, for cryin’ out loud! It’s chaff in the wind, and never to be gathered. I’ll bet any amount of moolah you wish to come up with. (So I have a dangling preposition. So what?)
Aprotim:
March 22nd, 2012 at 8:14 pm
How about this – like many words (pyjama, dinghy, jute, loot, pundit, etc.), what if this comes from India? In Hindi, ????? (pronounced “mulya”) and in Bengali, ????? (pronounced “mulla/mullo”) both mean “price”. Since this is just the kind of salient word members of the Raj would distort/use with the locals, seems like a likely origin, and given that Kolkata (in Bengal, and noted victim of similar anglophone distortion into “Calcutta”) was the British capital of India until 1911, this is far less far-fetched than Fijian or even South Indian languages. This isn’t some obscure word, either – indeed, Google translate’s default translation of “price” for both language is one of these “moolah” sound-alikes.
Virginia:
September 27th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Doesn’t all these diverse origins show how we are all connected, 6 degrees of separation? Here’s another one, JEHOVAH-GMOLAH……..Jeremiah 51:6
meaning “The God of Recompense.” God revealed Himself to the Israelites through His name showing His characteristics and fulfilling their needs. That which has been stolen from His people has been returned to them, God paid them back double for the suffering they went through. Even though His children were not perfect, God keeps calling them back, reconciling AND promising to give to reward them for returning to Him. Blessings!
MarkB:
December 22nd, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Moolah – see: the Fabulous.
X. Ray:
May 28th, 2013 at 11:51 pm
Number 1 explanation in my books.
Vailixi:
June 20th, 2013 at 3:48 am
Mulya(pronounced moolya) is a Sanskrit word which means, price, worth, charge, salary,cost, value, fare etc; There can be a connection here.
Thanks.
V
Tomás:
June 27th, 2013 at 7:41 pm
Could it be child’s speak for ‘mooney’ and no more? I can tell you on good authority that the Irish language root cited above is incorrect. A book of Cork slang, i.e. Cork City Ireland, states that it’s in a Joyce book, unfortunately it doesn’t state which one. My father,a Corkman said he always associated with Cork slang and that Joyce may have picked it up from his father, who grew up in Cork.
Mila:
July 18th, 2013 at 6:35 am
I went to an exhibit of the Henrietta Marie, a ship that carried African slaves. Part of the exhibit was on terms and words brought into the English language by West Africans, and moolah was one them.
Colleen:
August 28th, 2013 at 2:04 am
There are hundreds of languages spoken in West Africa. As a possible source, it’s a direct link with USA. Re Thomas’ suggestion of child’s speak: my nephew’s early word for water was ‘woolly’, so… My family retained a few quaint children’s versions of words. Is this known to occur beyond a family circle?
marrano Miguel:
May 14th, 2014 at 8:54 pm
not normal spanish, most are Ladino,
LG:
July 30th, 2014 at 1:25 pm
I’ve been doing research on the Chinook Jargon (a widespread goldrush-era pidgin language of the Pacific Northwest) that might back up the first theory in your article.
Even though Chinook Jargon faded out after the first world war, many words (like Skookum – awesome, Coolie – a kind of glacial valley, The Sticks – the wilderness) still live on in the lexicon of the West Coast.
The Chinook Jargon word for mill (derived from the french) is in fact Moola, and several writers on Chinook have suggested a connection to the modern slang. Even today in the deep north of the Pacific Coast, the mills are synonymous with income in communities that have little else going for them economically.
infanttyrone:
January 2nd, 2015 at 6:02 pm
At the risk of not being granted an indulgence for the intrusion…
Does anyone have a basis for connecting moola/moolah to “mullah”?
Seems like religions are generally at the service of, as noted by the etymologist Carlin, a deity that is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omni-whatever, but who always needs Money.
Thanks for any responses…
thinkyhead:
February 10th, 2015 at 12:08 am
Google Ngram Viewer shows the word “Moolah” (capitalized) first appearing in print in 1810, quite a long time before the 1930’s. It appears capitalized most of the time up until 1926, when it then starts to appear more often in informal lowercase.
Heather:
April 27th, 2015 at 10:30 pm
Spanish silver coins were the first global currency, so it would make sense for people to use a Spanish word for wealth/assets.
Sifu Dave:
May 2nd, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Remember that nearly ALL language comes from ‘sounds’ that connect naturally with the objects being named. Such as Ancient Egyptian: Cat – ‘Mau’ (‘Meow’), Hawk is ‘Hau’ (the Haauu.. sound they make), etc. Most words originally derive from ‘natural’ Onomatopoeia (‘sizzle’, cuckoo, ‘slither’, Ssssnake, ‘Criket’, etc., etc….).
So: it seems ALL of the ‘Moolah’ derivations are Valid – and there is LOTS of global lingual overlap of similar ‘Value-Based’ words ‘sounding like’ Mool-ah… from Irish, to Hindi, to Spanish, etc., etc….
Hence – the Universality and popularity of using the sound ‘Moolahhh…’ to represent money.
EoS:
June 11th, 2015 at 7:26 am
I have always believed that the word Moolah is sprung from molasses, i.e. suger, i.e. money. But probably a far to simple explanation.
Jenn:
June 21st, 2015 at 8:04 pm
The word “amoleh” for salt could be a possible etymology.
Delmar L Nicholson:
June 29th, 2015 at 8:33 am
Yes indeed one of my favorite words as well but and I concur with your theories but alas ,no answer. Please continue your hard work! :-)
Richard Howorth:
July 3rd, 2015 at 4:09 pm
I recall reading a novel by the Irish American writer, J. P. Donleavy, and his use the word “moulagh” for dough, or money. I remember this because, though I often used the word moolah as a kid around my brothers and friends, it was the first time I encountered it in print, and for a long time I thought moulagh was the way the word is spelled. Unless I’m mistaken, this would give credence to the Irish connection, “moll oir.”
Dhirendra Singh:
July 10th, 2015 at 2:55 pm
I am a fijian, and no words native or slang is in the Fijian dialect exist as Moolah or mula.. The closest we use in Fiji is Mullah.. which means “Islamic Priest”.
Dhirendra Singh:
July 10th, 2015 at 2:57 pm
Not sure how the Times of India came up with the story.
The African Contribution:
January 5th, 2016 at 11:57 am
Since everyone is going with their little story… I’ll add mine. The word money in Kirundi is “amahera” or just “‘mahera” and since the “r” is pronounced close to an “l” sound – we pronounce it “(a)mahela” pretty much.
Since almost everything can be traced back to Africa… And even India happened to be nothing but a part of the old Kushite Empire/Kingdom… It’s safe to assume the origin is here again Africa. Voilà!
OK! I’ll leave now.
darrah:
March 11th, 2016 at 4:42 pm
“mola” which means “spring” like a bed spring also is a slang for money. very similar.
Thomas:
July 2nd, 2016 at 4:27 pm
So, I looked up the etymology for this today because I drove past a place called Moolah Temple yesterday and went, “Wait, what?” Apparently it’s a Shriner thing, and the one near me is now no longer used as a temple, but the name remains (it’s a big old building). On the website for another Shriner Temple also called Moolah Temple, they provided the following definition:
“MOOLAH – an Arabic word meaning ‘Title for one learned in teaching dignity for Islamic law and religion.'”
So I guess there’s that.
When I typed “moolah” into google translate and tried to translate from Arabic to English, well–of course the site got a little confused, because I was using the Roman alphabet for Arabic. They asked if I meant an Arabic word whose transliteration would be “mewlah,” and I clicked on that to see what would happen, and it translated the word to “master” in English.
I don’t know how this would be related to money at all. Maybe it’s another dead end. But I just wanted to share what I found.
lewice lewice:
July 14th, 2016 at 2:32 am
during the Korean War the aerial battle between the American Sabres and the Communist MiGs was hugely important. The Americans wanted to know more about the MiGs, so they set up operation Moolah. Basically they would pay $100,000 for any Korean pilots who defected in a MiG. I.e. this money was for a Korean pilot to fly a MiG to an American airbase in South Korea and surrender it.
Perhaps naming an operation that offered a lot of money Moolah, gave rise to this word being used to mean a lot of money!
Lukindo:
October 2nd, 2016 at 12:58 am
The Swahili word for God is Mola. I’ve been trying to trace it’s etymology a that’s how I got here. Although I haven’t come up with a definitive answer I do have a theory. The Swahili were an influential mercantile civilization on the East Coast of Africa. They had and still exibit strong connections to the Indian sub-continent as well as the Arabian Peninsula. As a mercantile civilization, money played a major role in their social structure. As such their religion may have centered around money. In other words, God’s blessing measured in wealth. The Swahili were also monotheistic, and practiced what is today seen as a form of Islam. They believed that Mola was one, hence the idea of a root.
Kava:
April 3rd, 2017 at 7:49 am
The german [sl.] Mäuser (“mice”) means moolah, and is at least similar in pronunciation.
Lo:
May 31st, 2017 at 8:02 pm
TL;DR: Don’t know the answer – guess there isn’t just one origin, since it’s a quite primitive word – words change – if you go down, be prepared!
Well, asking for an 100% true answer to the origin of a word, which is used in the US is quite hard – not the asking actually, but finding the answer…
There’s basically every ethnicity of the world in the US and with it languages, influences, cultures, yada yada yada.
Fortunately, there are some well preserved traces to most of the words origin, but sometimes there’s a word like ‘Moolah’, or is it ‘mula’? Or ‘mulla’ or even ‘moola’?!
(@thinkyhead: Ngram showed me results for ‘mula’ back in 1699, ‘mulla’ 1721, ‘Moolah’ 1763,’moola’ 1808, and last but not least ‘moolah’ 1815, whereas ‘mula’ was and is always king, except from ~1820-1840)
See, one of the first things when venturing out to find THE origin of a word is to know how do you spell the word correctly, in short, what to look for exactly.
And one of my most favorite – yet in this case somewhat hindering – features of the US mentality is – my so beloved – gemutlichkeit (note: following ramble isn’t just limited to the US rather applies to any country, culture, man, woman and other*):
Words get circumcised, letters disappear, syllables get swallowed, and meanings(!) change in a moment’s notice,…
It’s actually pretty great, and also necessary – considering lots of people, lots of languages, lots of (im-?!)proper pronunciation, spellings, school sucks anyways,… and the people just want to freaking talk to each other, chat about (idk) the weather (mayhaps?!) and don’t want to get held back by unnecessary ‘E’s, or ‘U’s or red necks or… I mean red coats… and so on and on and on and…
Language is vivid, it lives, breathes, it progresses (*now we have ze, and xe, and kee, and lee,… yay, more, and more more or less beautiful and meaningful and thoughtful words!), regresses, or just gresses at least a bittle (see, what I did there?), it’s the oldest organism, which is still alive!
So, back on topic…
Generally speaking, most of the common used words are pretty much known, since it’s a quite ordinary and documented origin.
But if you are looking for a word, which is composed of two of the simplest noises ever, a ‘moo’ sound and a ‘la’ sound, and you’re trying to find the one and only origin of the word, or rather the origin of the meaning we associate it with today, in the most cultural divers place on this very planet, I won’t say it’s impossible, but I wish you best of luck!
Just don’t be an agnorant bafoon!
The hole is deep, and it wasn’t dug by a rabbit.
Cheers, good luck and farewell,
Lo
Neil Husher:
October 12th, 2017 at 11:25 am
If not a slur in the past, it has become the favorite of conservative politicians with a wink and a sneer to name or pronounce “Mullah”, an Islamic theologian.
sutapa sengupta:
October 18th, 2017 at 4:34 pm
moolah may come from sanskrit mulyah, which means price.
british could pick it from indian vernacular when they colonise india.
Jaswant Bhopal:
January 9th, 2018 at 7:12 pm
I am Indian, and I am familiar with Indian languages and English. I was educated in the UK from the age of 5 years. Many EnglIsh words come from India, via the British Raj. I know that mul” means price or value in Punjabi and Hindi. I can imagine an Englishman bartering in India, and asking how much “moolah”, meaning how much money. Sounds like a plausible origin of the word, more so than mules, donkeys and other unlikely suggestions.
Wilma Wanda:
February 2nd, 2018 at 12:35 am
In Mozambique mollla means money( dinheiro) .
Angela White:
March 30th, 2018 at 10:11 am
“Some slang doesn’t have an origin”? Just because we do not know the origin, does not mean there isn’t one.
The Sanskrit/Bengali mulla for price, value, worth, salary seems most plausible. Also the Hebrew ‘gmolah’ is probably a related word.
Deborah Aydon:
May 19th, 2018 at 12:55 pm
It’s the Sudanese word for a stew/curry. A staple food. Is it to far-fetched to think that it originated with Americans of African descent, gravitating from food to the means of putting food on the table?
Tuulikki Kyytsönen:
April 19th, 2019 at 6:07 am
Hamburg was and still is the biggest trading center for oriental carpets, partly coming from India. Harbour workers may have picked up the Hindi word “moolyah” for money and implemented it in their local language “plattdüütsch” (Lower Saxonian). A person boasting having money is called “mallig”.
Alex:
August 4th, 2019 at 9:46 am
Quite possibly it simply derives from the Arabic word for money ??? – which is pronounced “Mellah”.
eh he:
November 14th, 2020 at 5:00 pm
Don’t have to go that far. In Arabic, money is “mulla”.
Rebecca K:
December 26th, 2021 at 4:21 pm
Thinking of Cassidy’s proposal, this could actually make sense if you factor in the Mexican Vaqueros who attempt to say “Bucai Ruo” which might be what they thought the Irish settlers called them in English. This would sound like “Buckaroo”. Not saying it’s 100% but something to consider.
Rebecca Lon:
December 26th, 2021 at 4:42 pm
Further supporting my claim is the fact “Buckaroo” is an extremely popular Australian term with “wallaroo & Jackaroo” also being present. It makes more sense that the term comes from old Irish term and when Irish settlers were in the western expansion they interacted with Vaqueros (say it with an Irish brogue) and they would assume they were calling themselves “Bucai roo” as we interpret languages we don’t know using the sounds and rules of our own language.
Further to support imagine french/German/English/finish/and Irish settlers in the south gambling and the Irish says “don’t touch the moll oir” when referring to the gambling pot and how the others would interpret and use the term. Human interaction is the most important factor when we consider the origin of many terms (especially slang) because all languages borrow terms from one another.