Nomisma

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title: "Nomisma" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["currency", "coins", "greek-words-and-phrases", "numismatics"] description: "Ancient Greek word for money" topic_path: "general/currency" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomisma" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Ancient Greek word for money ::

Nomisma () was the ancient Greek word for "money" and is derived from nomos (νόμος) meaning "'anything assigned,' 'a usage,' 'custom,' 'law,' 'ordinance,' or 'that which is a habitual practice.'"

::quote ...but money has become by convention a sort of representative of demand; and this is why it has the name 'money' (nomisma) – because it exists not by nature but by law (nomos) and it is in our power to change it and make it useless. ::

The term nomos may also refer to an approximately 8 gram Achaean coin denomination.

Other uses

In Modern Greek, the word nomisma means "currency". It is also a term used by numismatists when referring to the pieces of money or coin in the plural nomismata an example of which is the Aes rude of Numa Pompilius (the 2nd King of Rome).

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Ancient Greek-NOMISMA: "money", The King James Version (KJV) New Testament Greek Lexicon; Strong's Number:3546 http://www.foreignword.com/Tools/dictsrch_aff.asp?menu=N&query=nomisma&src=CQ&go=Translate&trg=BP
• Aristotle, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS [1133b 1], translations: a) Thomas Taylor https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8438; b) Sir (William) David Ross KBE http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.5.v.html; c) Harris Rackham https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0053&layout=&loc=1133b+1
• Contemporatary Greek-NOMISMA: "currency"http://www.kypros.org/cgi-bin/lexiconhttp://www.in.gr/dictionary/lookup.asp?Word=currency
• Pliny the Elder, The Natural History,BOOK XXXIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS. CHAP. 1. (1.)--THE ORES OF BRASS., Editions and translations: English (ed. John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley| Latin (ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff)https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=34:chapter=1

References

1. The King James Version New Testament Greek Lexicon; Strong's Number:3546
2. Aristotle 350 B.C.E., book 5
3. "Forum Ancient Coins".
4. "Greek, Lucania – 530 BC".
5. Greek-English Lexicon
6. Pliny the Elder 77 A.C.E., book 34

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