When pronouncing a word, a native speaker rarely thinks about its origin. However, the history of some words is still an unsolved mystery for etymologists. For example, the name of the coin is "kopeck".
For the first time a penny appeared in Russia in 1535 as a result of the monetary reform of Elena Glinskaya, who was the mother of Ivan the Terrible. The goal of the reform was to replace all foreign and old Russian coins with one coin, that is, a penny. The origin of the word "penny" is controversial in modern etymology. There are several main versions.
Version one
IN AND. Dahl, in his famous Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, indicates that the word kopeck comes from the verb "to save". M. Vasmer's etymological dictionary also contains evidence that "penny" is a derivative of the verb "to save". However, this version does not seem plausible. There are doubts why coins of a certain type were called a penny, and not all money in general. Along with the penny, there were the names of money "pool", "money", etc.
Second version
The most common version is that “Novgorodka” was originally called a kopeck, which was a kind of Novgorod money. A spearman was depicted on the Novgorodok. In Moscow, there were not pennies, but "saber", which depicted a warrior with a saber. The weight of Novgorod money was equal to 1 / 100th of a ruble, and this was the most convenient. When Novgorod money became popular in Moscow, it changed its name to “kopeck”. Until now, Russian speakers associate the name “penny” with the word “spear” and the image on the obverse of the coin of George the Victorious, striking the Serpent with a spear. Linguistic researchers believed that the Great Duke was depicted on the horse, since the rider had a crown on his head - a symbol of royal power. Old Russian chronicles consider this version to be the main one.
Version three
Silver dinars of the Mongolian Khan Kelek (Kebek) were widespread in Russia. During the period of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the khan carried out a monetary reform and introduced a new monetary unit. If the coin was more than 8 grams, then it was called a dinar. Subsequently, dinars in colloquial speech began to be called "kepek dinar", which translated means "dinars of Khan Kepek". Further, the name was assimilated into Russian and transformed into the word "penny". This version is considered less common, since it does not have a sufficient evidence base.
It is interesting that the word “kopeck” finally entered the active vocabulary of the Russian language only at the end of the 17th century. For the first time this word was minted on a coin only in 1704.
