The story
- Italian · derived frommezzo
- Italian · derived fromcorona“crown”
- English todaytosheroon
From 19th-century British slang, developed from or alongside tusheroon, of uncertain derivation from British slang caroon (“crown, a 5-shilling silver coin”), from Sabir and (originally) Italian corona (“crown”). The term was either derived from or influenced by madza caroon, the British slang for the Sabir and Italian mezzo corona (“half-crown”), possibly under influence from tosh (“copper items; valuables”) above or from the half-crown's value of two shillings & sixpence.
Words from the same roots
Italiancorona all →
Italianmezzo all →
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.