# euro

Pronunciation: US say "YUUR-oh" /ˈjʊɹoʊ/; UK say "YOOR-oh" /ˈjʊəɹəʊ/

## Noun

1. The official currency of the European Monetary Union, used across many European countries, with the symbol €.
   - Simple: The money used in many European countries, like France, Spain, and Germany.
   - _The euro replaced the franc and the mark for everyday transactions._
   - _Tourists often carry a few hundred euros in cash when traveling the continent._
2. A coin having a face value of one euro.
   - Simple: A coin that is worth one euro.
   - _The vending machine accepts only a euro, not the smaller coins._
   - _He stacked his euros neatly beside the register before counting them._
3. Abbreviation of European. — Abbreviation of European, in any sense.
   - Simple: Abbreviation of European. Often seen as the prefix Euro- in compound words.
   - _The newspaper covered the Euro-American summit in considerable detail._
   - _Their company expanded into Euro-Asian markets last year._
4. A wallaroo (Macropus robustus), a stocky macropod native to the rocky hill country of Australia.
   - Simple: A large Australian animal like a kangaroo that lives in rocky hills.
   - _The euro grazes at night and shelters among rocks during the heat of the day._
   - _Euros are well adapted to the arid hills of inland Australia._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3** — The name "euro" was the winning entry in a public contest to name the new European currency, so it is technically a neologism, though it clearly alludes to the name of the continent Europe, from Latin Europa, from Ancient Greek Εὐρώπη (Eurṓpē), the name of a princess in Greek mythology. According to the official story, it was coined by Belgian teacher and esperantist Germain Pirlot in 1995.
**Meaning 4** — From Adnyamathanha yuru, thuru.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/euro (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).