South Pacific peso
- noun
- Archaic
:
peso del Pacífico Sur
- Travelers were advised to exchange their South Pacific pesos for local currency before leaving the country.
Examples
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She kept a few old South Pacific pesos as souvenirs from her trip.
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The South Pacific peso was used in several island nations.
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Prices in the grocery store were all listed in South Pacific pesos.
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I exchanged my dollars for South Pacific pesos at the airport.
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Prices in the grocery store were all listed in South Pacific pesos.
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I exchanged my dollars for South Pacific pesos at the airport.
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The South Pacific peso was used in several island nations.
Synonyms
17
1.6
A unit of money used in countries like Mexico and the Philippines
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase: a learner who knows 'South Pacific' (a geographic region) and 'peso' (a unit of currency) can readily infer it denotes a currency used in the South Pacific. The construction follows common cross-linguistic patterns of regional modifier + currency noun, so the meaning is transparently derivable from the parts.
Etymology
South Pacific peso comes from the Spanish word peso, which once meant 'weight' and later became the name for a coin. When people in parts of the South Pacific used that coin, they called their money South Pacific pesos, so the name means the unit of 'currency' that was used there.