Spondulix

'''Spondulix''' is 19th-century slang for money or cash, more specifically a reasonable amount of spending money. '''Spondulicks''', '''spondoolicks''', '''spondulacks''', '''spondulics''', and '''spondoolics''' are alternative spellings, and '''spondoolies''' is a modern variant.

==Etymology== [[File:SpondylusPliocene.jpg|thumb|The interior of two fossil valves of ''Spondylus'' from the Pliocene of Cyprus]] There are two views on the origin of the word. ===Latin=== Possibly derived from the Latin verb ''spondēre'', meaning "to promise".{{cn|date=December 2025}} Bank notes in England and elsewhere in the 19th century stated "I promise to pay the bearer ..." (the equivalent of the value of the note). Bank notes today continue with this promise.

===Greek=== Possibly derived from the Greek word ''spondulox,'' a type of seashell of the genus ''Spondylus''.<ref>See Partridge, ''Dictionary of Historical Slang, q.v.''

[https://books.google.com/books?id=rusRAAAAYAAJ&dq=spondulix+conchological&pg=PA539 The United States Service Magazine], vol 3. June, 1865. p. 539. "A Word About Slang." "'Spondulix' is suggestive. It recalls the wampum of the poor Indian, the cowrie of the Ethiopian, and resuscitates the ancient blackmail man, who, as his kinsman, the dun, does today, called upon his victim to 'shell out.' For 'Spondulix' is conchological. The ''spondylus'' (from Greek ''spondulos'',) is a shell inequivalve ..."</ref>

The ''Spondylus'' shell was used as Neolithic jewellery and also as an early form of currency.

There is global evidence of the importance of the spondylus shell. Archaeological evidence<ref>for example, see Archaeology in Bulgaria, 2007-2009 by Ivo D. Cholakov & Krastyu Chulakev, published in the American Journal of Archaeology (2011)</ref> shows that people in Europe were trading the shells as jewellery as long as 5,000 years ago. ''Spondylus'' shells from the Aegean Sea were harvested and then worked into bracelets, bangles and ornaments and transported throughout the continent. It is thought that the shells were also traded as an early form of currency due to their mother-of-pearl-like appearance. There may also be a connection with ''spondylo-'', a prefix which means spine or vertebrae, based on the similarity between a stack of coins and a spine. This is referenced in an 1867 book by John Mitchell Bonnell<ref>John Mutchell Bonnell, A Manual of the Art of Prose Composition: for the Use of Colleges and Schools, J.P. Morton and Co. (1867)</ref> and quotes etymologist Michael Quinion's correspondence with a Doug Wilson linking the spine to piled coins; thus "Spondulics - coin piled for counting...".

==Early written use== The earliest recorded occurrence of the word as slang for money appears to have been in the late 19th century in the United States. The New Oxford Dictionary of English marks the origin as US slang. However, according to the Cassell Dictionary of Slang,<ref>Cassell Dictionary of Slang, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2000)</ref> the term can be traced back to the mid-19th century in England. Other sources also suggest a mid-19th-century origin. The July 1852 edition of the ''Water-Cure Journal'' includes "Gossip from Indiana" by "a Hoosier" which complains about "spending our spondulix."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vITlAAAAMAAJ&dq=spondulix&pg=RA1-PA124 Water-Cure Journal] vol. 14, July 1852, Fowlers & Wells</ref> In Meister Karl's Sketch-Book (1855), Charles Godfrey Leland includes it in a long list of synonyms for money: "... the magic spell of the ''ready''—otherwise known as money, cash, tin, stuff, rhino, root-of-all-evil, blunt, wherewithal, rowdy, funds, stumpy, pecuniary, dibs, hard, browns, heavy, mopusses, slugs, shiners, lucre, or 'the filthy,' dust, gelt, chips, lumps, chinkers, mint-drops, pewter, brass, horsenails, rocks, brads, spondulix, needful, dough, spoons, buttons, dimes, or the infallible ..."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kkJIAAAAIAAJ&dq=spondulix&pg=PA166 Meister Karl's Sketch-book] p. 166, Charles Godfrey Leland, 1855.</ref> The spelling "spondulicks" appeared in an 1858 edition of ''Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine'':<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dVAdAQAAIAAJ&dq=spondulicks&pg=PA86 Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine], volume 3</ref> "Steve, if the Court recollects herself, then you come up with the spondulicks, and Bill Bresse tuck down Lem's pile." Louisa May Alcott's ''Eight Cousins'' (1875) has a variant spelling in Charlie's statement that, "we have plenty of 'spondulics,' so we can rather lord it over the other fellows and do as we like."<ref> [https://archive.org/details/eightcousinsora00cogoog], 1875, Roberts brothers, 103.</ref>

"Spondulix" is used by 19th-century American author Bret Harte in his 1891 story "A Sappho of Green Springs": "MR. EDITOR, – I see you have got my poetry in. But I don't see the spondulix that oughter follow.";<ref>Harte, Bret, ''"ARGONAUT EDITION" OF THE WORKS OF BRET HARTE: "A Sappho of Green Springs, The Four Guardians of Lagrange, Peter Schroeder"'' (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1903) 14.</ref> in Chapter XIII of ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', the riverboat captain tells Huck that he wouldn't forsake a sailor's life "for all [old Jim Hornback's] spondulicks and as much more..." It is also mentioned in the short story "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" from the collection ''Dubliners'' (1914) by Irish novelist James Joyce. In the 1916 Charlie Chaplin silent film ''The Floorwalker'', a title card proclaims "Spondulicks Forever!" after Chaplin appears to rejoice upon recovering a suitcase full of greenbacks.<ref>{{Citation|last=onefilm|title=The Floorwalker (1916) Charles Chaplin, Eric Campbell, Edna Purviance, Lloyd Bacon|date=2017-06-16|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opzMXjHOiwA|access-date=2018-09-27}}</ref>

== See also == * {{Portal inline|Money}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

== External links == * {{Wiktionary inline|spondulicks}}

Category:English-language slang Category:Money