Etymology

money does not smell

Today it means: The value of money is not affected by the business it comes from, even from the most unpleasant one. Full definition →

Latin pecūnia nōn olet
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The story

  1. Latin · calque ofpecūnia nōn olet
  2. English todaymoney does not smell

Calque of Latin pecūnia nōn olet, said to be Vespasian's reply to his son Titus, who was complaining about the urine tax he had imposed.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.