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I was going to the hole-in-the-wall to get some rhino the other day, when I started to wonder why cash is so-called.

I hit the books. Farmer & Henley gives no etymology. Partridge says

Origin problematic; there is probably some allusion to the size of a rhinoceros or the price which almost any part of its corpse will fetch as an aphrodisiac.

This is supported by the related terms rhino-fat, rhinoceral and rhinocerical, all meaning 'rich'.

Green thinks

ety. unk.; one suggestion, that it refers to the rhinoceros, then a fabulous creature 'worth its weight in gold', implies a certain lexicographical desperation

I had no luck with online sources either (here).

So, does anyone know why money is called rhino?

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4  
So, I've learnt something new today. Despite my addiction to English, I had never heard this term being used with reference to cash. Is it a term that people would recognize outside the UK? Can it be freely used (I suppose in a colloquial context)? – Paola May 26 '12 at 13:31
@Paola: I'm a native speaker from the US, and this word was new for me, too. – Henry May 26 '12 at 15:30
@Paola: I'm a native speaker from the UK, and this word was new for me, too. – Hugo May 26 '12 at 22:07
This book is also doubtful of Partridge's etymology. – Hugo May 26 '12 at 22:08

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

This is probably an unanswerable question, but an interesting suggestion is that the 'rhino' being alluded to is not the pachyderm, but the nose (as in rhinology or rhinoplasty), and 'rhino' as cash is linked to the earlier phrase 'paying through the nose'.

http://www.wwwk.co.uk/culture/phrases/paying-through-nose.htm

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up vote 4 down vote

As you say, the origin is uncertain. The OED has mentioned the earliest instances of its usage, which are as follows:

1688  Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia I:- "Thou shalt be rhinocerical, my Lad."

1699 Dunton's conversation in Ireland, Life & Errors (1818):- "It was pretty to see the Squire choused out of so fair an estate with so little ready rhino."

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The OED also gives this: Forms: 16 ryno, 16–17 rino, 16 18– rhino. Etymology: Origin uncertain. The collocation with rhinocerical adj. in quot. a1628 suggests that the word may show a shortening of rhinoceros n. (perhaps with allusion to the value of rhinoceros horn), although this could equally reflect after-the-fact rationalization of a word of different origin, or even punning. Compare later rhino n.2 – Hugo May 26 '12 at 21:59
up vote 3 down vote

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable suggests 'one plausible origin' as powdered rhino horn brought back from the East, commanding a high price for its reputed properties. Brewer's not good on definitive answers, but unbeatable for plausibility.

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I also feel compelled to mention that I've only ever heard this from Brian and P G Wodehouse; but then, each of them has better English than the Daily Mail, let alone the New York Times. – TimLymington May 26 '12 at 17:57

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