Earn Your Salt

Sal is Spanish for salt. Salario is Spanish for salary. Both words, salario and salary come from the same root word "sal," which means salt.

In ancient Roman times soldiers were often times paid in salt. This is where we get the words salario and salary. So, to earn your salt means to earn your salary, your income. The term, "You're not worth your salt," also means "You're not worth your pay."

Image Source: originalwatermen.com
Info Source: History Channel, Modern Marvels, Essentials
Info Souve: wikipedia.org

This is Real

The word "real" is a Spanish word. Real means "royal" in Spanish.

In times gone by, only royalty could own land. Anyone else living on land was considered a subject, peasant, peon, and worse.

This is why land is called real property (as opposed to personal property). Real property means royal property, only royalty could own it. Real estate means royal estate!

Now you know what is meant by the old adage "A man's home is his castle (kingdom)."

It truly is. Own your own home, you're a king (In your own home, of course).

Image Source: taringa.net

Lunatic

The word lunatic is derived from the Latin word luna which means moon. A lunatic is a person who is affected in a negative way by the full moon. Remember the werewolves? Vampires?

Now you know where the legends come from. Historically, some people really do go berserk during a full moon.

Police crime statistics have shown that there is a spike in crime during full moon days. Just take note of the next full moon weekend.

Image Source: kenneyjacobs.com

Fiat Money

Fiat means "Let there be," as in the Latin term "Fiat Lux;" "Let there be light."

Fiat money is money declared by a government. It's money that doesn't really exist except by governmental ordinance.

In years gone by, only gold and silver were money. Inflation was unheard of. On the contrary, the more industrious a nation was, the lower the costs were, and the more a nation prospered.


Fiat money is created by our banking institutions, printed by our Federal Reserve and given our government's ordination as legal tender.

At the stroke of a pen our entire country (and almost every other industrialized country) can be bankrupted because we don't have the gold nor the silver to backup our presumed wealth.

Fiat money is fake money. There is no true wealth behind it, except that which is ordained by a government's ability to declare war on other nations and take their wealth.

The Pound

In days gone by, only gold and silver were used as money. In the developed world, only gold and silver held any value as a medium of exchange.

In Britain, one pound of sterling silver became known as one pound sterling; one British pound (£.)

The symbol for the pound (£) is the letter "L." The letter "L" is the abbreviation for libra, commonly abbreviated as "lb" in the US and Mexico. Libra in Spanish means pound in English.

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The Peso

In Mexico the Spanish "Ocho Reales" became known as the Peso.

Peso, means weight. One peso means one weight, in reference to the weight of the Piece of Eight, so one peso meant one Spanish Real, or a Piece of Eight.

Mexico was the first country to use the $ sign, which the US later adopted for it's currency.

Info Source: wikipedia.org
Imager Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Bank of America

Contrary to the History Channel's "America, The Story of US" the bank of Massachusetts did not become the Bank of America, the Bank of America was formerly The Bank of Italy, based in San Francisco. Having nothing to do with Massachusetts.

It was founded in San Francisco in 1904 by Amadeo Giannini. It grew by a branch strategy to become The Bank of America, the world's largest commercial bank with 493 branches in California and assets of $45 billion in 1945.

Evidence:
June 24, 2010
An episode on Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery. The
narrator says that Julio (or Ernest) went to the bank in Modesto to take out a
loan, the bank on the picture accompanying this statement was a picture of The Bank of Italy.

Infor Source: wikipedia.org; TV documentary
Image Source: latimesblog.latimes.com