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I found 2 new words on my American Slang book (Talk the way americans do).

1) Green

2) GreenBack

Meaning of these words on my book :

Green : money (Referring to the color green seen on U.S. paper currency). How much green do you have?

GreenBack : U.S. paper currency. The greenback is accepted almost everywhere around the world?

So ,my question is : Are these 2 words used in place of the word "money" in US?

Does the following sentence make sense in US English?

I had to spend 300 greens to buy the movie ticked in San Fransisco.

?

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    Many people in the United States will recognize what you mean if you say, greenbacks, but I would characterize it as rather dated slang for U.S. paper currency. For example, these remarks aren't something you'd be likely to here from anyone in the United States who wasn't singing an old blues song: "Well I went down to a big crap game; it certainly was against my will. I lost every dog-gone nickel I had but a greenback dollar bill." The term greens for U.S. paper currency is not familiar to me and may be misunderstood in this country because green has so many competing meanings.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Aug 1, 2015 at 6:09
  • Plus, money is no longer entirely green anyway, although the back side of all of the denominations is mostly if not all green. Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 12:59

1 Answer 1

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As in the Urban Dictionary:

Green means Money.

I want to eat, but I need some green.

and yes, it's acceptable in AE. As an example:

Spend some green at local stores and restaurants to help keep Houston green.

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  • Thank you Eilia for your answer and the like to urban dic, This is a new word for me and I am trying to learn it.
    – Amit Verma
    Commented Aug 1, 2015 at 6:04
  • @Starkeen, You're welcome!
    – Eilia
    Commented Aug 1, 2015 at 6:07
  • 1
    Note that green is not a count noun in this case. You can't say I spent 100 greens on those new Air Jordans. It means money in general, and is always singular in form. Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 12:57
  • @starkeen I wouldn't use the abbreviation "dic" for dictionary...
    – Theoriok
    Commented Jun 25, 2018 at 9:10

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