rupee
Pluralrupees
- 1The basic unit of money used in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and several other South Asian and Indian Ocean nations.
The shopkeeper handed back a few rupees in change after the sale.
Inflation pushed the price of fuel up by another rupee overnight.
Note
One name covers several national currencies, so a country name often does the distinguishing work: the Seychelles rupee. Before another noun the word stays singular, as in Tagore's ten-rupee note of 1937. Large sums are commonly counted in crores, as in 'crores of rupees'. Mahadev Desai's 1948 translation of Gandhi shows an older way of stating amounts, with the noun first: scholarships of rupees four and ten.
- 2A silver coin that circulated in India between the 16th and 20th centuries, weighing one tola, roughly 170 to 180 troy grains.
The merchant weighed every rupee carefully before accepting it as payment.
Soldiers were paid in silver rupees minted at the regional treasury.
Note
The coin the word was made for. Sher Shah Suri, sultan of the Suri Empire from 1540 to 1545, gave it the Hindustani name rūpīya, from Sanskrit rūpyaka, 'silver coin', and ultimately rūpya, 'wrought or stamped silver'. English took time to settle the spelling: George Sale's 1759 account gives roupie, roupee and rupee. In older trade and travel writing, read it as this weighed coin rather than the modern currencies.
- 3The main currency used throughout the fictional kingdom of Hyrule, spent on equipment, items, and services.
A green rupee was worth the least, while the silver ones were rare finds.
Players hoard rupees to buy upgrades from the village shops.
Note
A gamer's borrowing that moves the real-world coin name into Hyrule, the kingdom of the Legend of Zelda games. In players' talk it is an ordinary count noun: you collect rupees, or you are a few rupees short. Individual pieces are often named by color, as in a green rupee. Unlike the South Asian currencies, it never needs a country name in front of it.
Practice
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Origin
The word was coined by Sher Shah Suri, Sultan of the Suri Empire (1540–1545), as Hindustani rūpīya, a variant of rupaya ("rupee"). This came from Sanskrit rūpyaka ("silver coin"), from rūpya ("stamped coin; wrought gold or silver"). It is a doublet of rufiyaa and rupiah.