Italian lira
1
7.0
- noun
- Archaic
:
lira italiana
- When I traveled to Italy, I exchanged my dollars for Italian lira to pay for my meals and souvenirs.
- British pound and Italian lira
Examples
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Uh, 322,000 Italian lira.
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I have only 30,000 Italian lira, and I'm going to move right away from the hotel.
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Although at least two multinational banks recently have taken action to install backup systems for the Greek drachma, the Portuguese escudo, the Italian lira, and other European currencies traded in the market to re-prepare.
Blog text (28) -
In the early 2000s, people often received Italian lira in small notes and coins for daily purchases.
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Before the euro was introduced, many shops still accepted Italian lira for a short time after the official changeover.
Synonyms
7
6.4
A unit of money used in Turkey and formerly in Italy and Malta
The unit of money used in Italy before the euro
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'Italian' specifies the country and 'lira' names a currency unit, so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to the currency of Italy. This adjective+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and remains transparent even though the currency is now historical.
Etymology
Italian lira comes from an old word 'libra' meaning 'scales' or 'pound'. Long ago people used a lira as a weight and later as a coin, so the name became Italy's money until it was replaced by the euro.