REH Word of the Week: moidore
Posted by Barbara Barrett on July 19th, 2010
noun
1. A former Portuguese or Brazilian gold coin used from 1690 until 1722 and was also current in England in the early 18th century.
[origin: alteration of Portuguese moeda d’ouro; moeda; from Latin moneta, coin. de, of; from Latin de + ouro, gold; from Latin aurum]
HOWARD’S USAGE
“Boots of Cordovan leather, chests of ash,
Damascus steel, rare silks and silver plate;
Rough-carven gems to match the starlight’s flash,
And gold moidores cresting a piece-of-eight!
Tuns of brown ale and barrels of black rum,
And many a pipe of sharp Canary wine;
Toledo blades that shimmer, gleam and hum,
And bales of spice and idols of odd design!
[from “Drake Sings of Yesterday”; for the complete poem see The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, p. 466]
Posted in REH Poetry, Word of the Week |
