Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of devizo
Coloured illustration of devizo
#2349 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

motto, slogan; foreign currency

Word origin

From French devise, which means both a motto and a foreign currency. Behind it is Old French deviser, to divide or to distinguish, from Latin dividere: a heraldic device was the distinguishing mark divided off on a shield.

Origin
French
Root
devise
English cognates
device, devise, divide, division

Examples

.

The school's motto is short and clear.

: .

Our motto is: peace and work.

.

The bank exchanges foreign currencies.

There is no suffix in this word. Esperanto has no -iz- to find, and dev- (must, from ) has nothing to do with it: /o is a single root borrowed from French devise, and a beginner who cuts it into must-something has been misled by a shape.

French devise carries two senses, a motto and a foreign currency, and Esperanto imported the pair rather than choosing. The link between them is older than either. Old French deviser meant to divide or distinguish, from Latin e, and a heraldic device was the mark divided off on a shield to say whose shield it was. The mark acquired words and became a motto; the mark on a bill of exchange became the money. English device and devise came down the same road from the same word.

In practice the motto sense is the one you will meet: on coats of arms, on school gates, at the top of manifestos. The currency sense lives almost entirely in banking prose, usually in the plural, .

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

devizo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 47.