Cultural capsule.
 
Etymology is the study of word origins.
(It is not the study of insects; that is entomology.)
 
Where words come from is a fascinating subject, full of folklore and historical lessons. Often, popular tales of a word's origin arise. Sometimes these are true; more often they are.. who knows?
 
In order to prepare your trip to the Maya land, this is an cultural capsule about two words you use daily, but... Surprise! Born here.
 
Cash
Today, most of what we call money is not greenback paper bills but numbers stored in bank computers and spent or earned via checks, credit cards or electronic transfers from one bank's computer to another bank's computer.
 
The old times teach us the origin of our modern financial slang. The antique Mayans did not use real money for trade. They used the exchange (Ex: my bag of corn as a payment of your jaguar-teeth lance; my boat as a payment of your Sun God's gold necklace).
 
One of their most valuable treasures was the chicken. Indeed.
 
When they become feverish thinking in marriage, the Mayan bridegroom need to pay to the future in-laws with an important economic amount as a "payment" for their beautiful daughter. A dozen of chickens was a real fortune. (Maybe the fiancé appeared in Forbes' 500 –stone edition-)
 
Do you know how the Mayans said -till today- chicken?: K’aash.
 
Money has progressed from chickens, to metal coins to paper rectangles.But the descriptive word is still the same.
 
Shark
Shark is an interesting word, appearing much later than one might expect. It was coined by sailors on John Hawkins's 1568-69 expedition. This expedition returned a specimen of the fish to London. Where they caught the fish is not recorded, but the trip was one to the Caribbean and was famous for a battle with the Spanish fleet off Veracruz in Mexico. Why they called this fish a shark is not known.
 
But it is possible that the word derives from the Mayan word for the fish, xoc, pronounced showk. This word is represented in Mayan writing by a glyph of two fish fins or sometimes two fish. Given the destination of the Hawkins's expedition, it is possible that the sailors adopted the local Mayan word for the fish.
 
El gato de Hobie.
September 2003