moola

English

Etymology 1

Unknown, attested since the 1920s. Suggested origins, none of which are accepted by mainstream lexicographers, include:

• from Romani mol (“have value, be worth”)
• from Irish moll óir (“heap of gold”) However, this is unlikely because of the difference in pronunciation.
• from French moulin (“mill”)
• from Chinook Jargon moola (“mill”)
• from Sanskrit मूल (mūla, “capital, principal”)
• coined by Chuck Green, a friend of Damon Runyon

Alternative forms

• moolah

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmuːˌlɑː/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmuː.lə/
• (MLE) IPA^(key): /ˈmyː.lɑ/, /ˈmuː.lɑ/, /ˈmʊ.lɑ/
• Rhymes: -uːlə

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

moola (uncountable)

1. (informal) Money, cash.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:money

   • 2022 July 12, Stefani Robinson & Paul Simms, “Reunited” (16:24 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[2], season 4, episode 1, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):

     “Well, to fix this house, we need money, correct? Does anyone know if we have any money? Anyone?” “Uh...” “Cash.” “Coin.” “Moola.” “Gold.” “Wonga.” “Rubles.” “Milk.” “Lettuce.” “Bread.” “Dough.” “Sweet cream.” “Stripper tips.” “Anyone?” “Colin Robinson was in charge of paying all the bills in the house, and now Colin Robinson is dead.”

Translations

informal: money

• Afrikaans: pitte pl, malie, blink
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 金錢／金钱 (zh) (jīnqián), 鈔票／钞票 (zh) (chāopiào)

• Dutch: poen (nl) m or n
• Finnish: tuohi (fi), fyrkka (fi), hynä (fi), massi (fi)
• French: blé (fr), oseille (fr), pognon (fr), thune (fr), moula (fr) f
• Georgian: მაყუთი (maq̇uti)
• German: Penunze (de) f
• Italian: grana (it) f
• Polish: mamona (pl) f
• Portuguese: grana (pt)
• Romanian: mălai (ro) n, lovele (ro) f pl
• Russian: капуста (ru) f (kapusta)
• Spanish: lana (es) f, plata (es) f, pasta (es)
• Swedish: deg (sv) c, stålar (sv) c pl, kosing (sv) c, para (sv) c, klöver (sv) c

Etymology 2

Noun

moola (plural moolas)

1. Obsolete form of mullah.

Sidamo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmoːla/
• Hyphenation: moo‧la

Adjective

moola (plural moolano)

1. dry

Declension

Declension of moola

	masculine	feminine
predicative	moola	moola
nominative	moolu	moola
genitive	moolu*)	moola*) moolate
accusative	moola*)	moola*)
*) Stressed on the final vowel. **) When part of a predicative phrase, the predicative case adjectives are followed by the clitics -ho (m) and -te (f)

Verb

moola

1. (intransitive) to be dry
2. (intransitive) to dry up

References

• Kazuhiro Kawachi (2007) A grammar of Sidaama (Sidamo), a Cushitic language of Ethiopia, page 144