I always thought this had something to do with the crime of grand theft, which (at least in some places) meant the theft of at least a thousand dollars.
Great, Famous, Important, or Exalted are my preferred uses for the word. My last name is Grandone and I have searched long and hard to find its origin. That is, since I am none of the above, just curious where such a curious name came from. Wish someone knew.
Please let me know if anyone out there has the facts.
Have a grand evening.
Jim
Don Dierdorff:
September 6th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I thought that perhaps a “grand” might be used to describe a $1,000 bill due to the president on the $1,000 bill, Grover Cleveland – the first part of “Grover” and the last part of “Cleveland” “Gr” “and”- hence grand. Just a thought.
Kurt kandy:
September 25th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
The Grand Watermellon was a 1,000 dollar bill that was sold for well over 2 million for its special print to a collector. I thought that the word “grand” for thousand dollars was derived from that one famouse bill.
Rachael:
February 15th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Thank You for this information… i have been wondering why people have started using grand for 1000 units of any currency, but i never got a very convincing answer.. this will definitely help subside my curiosity.
Scott:
April 9th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Other than “six figures”, is there a nickname for $100,000?
Hi James, my husband’s last name is also Grandone. You can look up the meaning of the name by going to Google and asking for the origin of the name. You can also get the “Coat of Arms” for the name. It goes back in history to the 700’s. Good luck
two bob:
September 2nd, 2012 at 1:23 pm
It’s english not american slang [rude term removed]
Dan S.:
September 5th, 2012 at 4:26 pm
“Grand” meaning “$1,000″ is often abbreviated to simply “G”, as in “20G” for $20,000. But these days, “metric” prefixes are becoming commonplace, so $20,000 might also be called “20k” (or $20k). Which can get confusing, because G as a prefix means 1,000,000,000 (one billion). The result is that $20G is a million times more than 20G.
As for “grand slam”, I had always thought the baseball usage (a home run with bases loaded, scoring 4 runs) was the original one, but apparently that’s not the case.
John van Schagen:
September 17th, 2013 at 4:21 am
The name ‘grand’ for $ 1,000 comes from a $ 1,000 banknote with the portrait of Ulysses Grant, 18th president of the USA. The banknote was called a “Grant”, which overtime became ‘grand’.
Dodger300:
April 5th, 2014 at 9:48 pm
Ulysses Grant is on the $50 bill, not the $1000 bill.
venus:
October 23rd, 2014 at 12:20 am
thank you for the this detailed information.. you have made it very clear the meaning of ‘ Grand’s its very useful…
Ange:
October 25th, 2014 at 5:40 am
Thanks – very interesting info.
Where4 does the word “”K”” for 1000 Grand comes from? “Does anybody know?
Thank you
Ange
J. Pastor:
March 1st, 2015 at 2:14 am
‘k’ is not a term for 1 grand or 1000 grand or anything related to “grand.”
It’s the standard abbrev. for the metric prefix “kilo,” as in “kilogram,” which means “1000 grams.” Similarly, ‘m’ stands for “mega” which means million, ‘g’ for “giga” which means billion, and so on.
I was hoping that ‘grand’ for 1000 and ‘K’ were both both linked to the Le Grand K. This is the name of reference mass for measuring the official kilogram – http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=31122
Mike:
January 15th, 2016 at 7:42 pm
100 grand, or 100 large.
Robert Mohr:
February 28th, 2017 at 4:43 pm
Capitalization matters when dealing with SI, i.e. metric prefixes:
da – 10, d – 0.1
h – 100, c – 0.01
k – 1,000, m – 0.001
M – 1,000,000, ? – 0.000001
note the m and M. ‘G’ stands for giga and equals one billion as you note, however ‘g’ is not an SI prefix, it is an abbreviation for gram.
John:
January 2nd, 2018 at 9:17 am
In London we have always called £1000 along un
Zarina:
May 5th, 2020 at 12:47 pm
I’m still confused about it
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JoeGottman:
April 12th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I always thought this had something to do with the crime of grand theft, which (at least in some places) meant the theft of at least a thousand dollars.
James M. Grandone:
November 18th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Great, Famous, Important, or Exalted are my preferred uses for the word. My last name is Grandone and I have searched long and hard to find its origin. That is, since I am none of the above, just curious where such a curious name came from. Wish someone knew.
Please let me know if anyone out there has the facts.
Have a grand evening.
Jim
Don Dierdorff:
September 6th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I thought that perhaps a “grand” might be used to describe a $1,000 bill due to the president on the $1,000 bill, Grover Cleveland – the first part of “Grover” and the last part of “Cleveland” “Gr” “and”- hence grand. Just a thought.
Kurt kandy:
September 25th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
The Grand Watermellon was a 1,000 dollar bill that was sold for well over 2 million for its special print to a collector. I thought that the word “grand” for thousand dollars was derived from that one famouse bill.
Rachael:
February 15th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Thank You for this information… i have been wondering why people have started using grand for 1000 units of any currency, but i never got a very convincing answer.. this will definitely help subside my curiosity.
Scott:
April 9th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Other than “six figures”, is there a nickname for $100,000?
Norma Grandone:
July 4th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Hi James, my husband’s last name is also Grandone. You can look up the meaning of the name by going to Google and asking for the origin of the name. You can also get the “Coat of Arms” for the name. It goes back in history to the 700’s. Good luck
two bob:
September 2nd, 2012 at 1:23 pm
It’s english not american slang [rude term removed]
Dan S.:
September 5th, 2012 at 4:26 pm
“Grand” meaning “$1,000″ is often abbreviated to simply “G”, as in “20G” for $20,000. But these days, “metric” prefixes are becoming commonplace, so $20,000 might also be called “20k” (or $20k). Which can get confusing, because G as a prefix means 1,000,000,000 (one billion). The result is that $20G is a million times more than 20G.
As for “grand slam”, I had always thought the baseball usage (a home run with bases loaded, scoring 4 runs) was the original one, but apparently that’s not the case.
John van Schagen:
September 17th, 2013 at 4:21 am
The name ‘grand’ for $ 1,000 comes from a $ 1,000 banknote with the portrait of Ulysses Grant, 18th president of the USA. The banknote was called a “Grant”, which overtime became ‘grand’.
Dodger300:
April 5th, 2014 at 9:48 pm
Ulysses Grant is on the $50 bill, not the $1000 bill.
venus:
October 23rd, 2014 at 12:20 am
thank you for the this detailed information.. you have made it very clear the meaning of ‘ Grand’s its very useful…
Ange:
October 25th, 2014 at 5:40 am
Thanks – very interesting info.
Where4 does the word “”K”” for 1000 Grand comes from? “Does anybody know?
Thank you
Ange
J. Pastor:
March 1st, 2015 at 2:14 am
‘k’ is not a term for 1 grand or 1000 grand or anything related to “grand.”
It’s the standard abbrev. for the metric prefix “kilo,” as in “kilogram,” which means “1000 grams.” Similarly, ‘m’ stands for “mega” which means million, ‘g’ for “giga” which means billion, and so on.
murray gm:
November 3rd, 2015 at 11:41 pm
I was hoping that ‘grand’ for 1000 and ‘K’ were both both linked to the Le Grand K. This is the name of reference mass for measuring the official kilogram – http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=31122
Mike:
January 15th, 2016 at 7:42 pm
100 grand, or 100 large.
Robert Mohr:
February 28th, 2017 at 4:43 pm
Capitalization matters when dealing with SI, i.e. metric prefixes:
da – 10, d – 0.1
h – 100, c – 0.01
k – 1,000, m – 0.001
M – 1,000,000, ? – 0.000001
note the m and M. ‘G’ stands for giga and equals one billion as you note, however ‘g’ is not an SI prefix, it is an abbreviation for gram.
John:
January 2nd, 2018 at 9:17 am
In London we have always called £1000 along un
Zarina:
May 5th, 2020 at 12:47 pm
I’m still confused about it