Simoleon is another word for money.
si·mo·le·on
/səˈmōlēən/
I once thought that the word Simoleon came from the popular PC game The Sims. However, recently I heard the word used in conversation, "It costs a lot of simoleons". I asked the speaker if he had played The Sims. He said he never heard of it.
When searched on Google, simoleon originates:
late 19th century: perhaps on the pattern of napoleon
However, no more information is given. Could someone explain how the word comes from napoleon or when it became a part of the English language?
Best Answer
Dictionary discussions of 'simoleon' and its variants
Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) has this very brief entry for the word simoleon:
Milford Mathews, A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (1951) has these relevant entries for simoleon and Simon:
Here at greater length (for context) are the three examples that Mathews cites. From George Ade, Artie: A Story of the Streets and Town (1896):
From "Her Reasons," in Life Magazine (December 11, 1903):
And from "Editor's Drawer," in Harper's Magazine (September 1859):
Harold Wentworth & Stuart Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang, first edition (1960) cites the Mathews example of Simon from 1859 and then offers this entry for simoleon:
But Robert Chapman & Barbara Kipfer, Dictionary of American Slang, third edition (1995) has this:
Early occurrences of members of the 'simoleon' family
As cited in ab2's answer, World Wide Words finds an example of simoleons from an Iowa newspaper published in 1883. Searches of Google Books and various newspaper databases turn up at least one earlier instance of simoleon. From "Through a Straw: A Summer Sigh for the Sea" in*[New York] Puck*, volume 11 (July 19, 1882):
And from "What Goeth On at Present," in [New York] Puck (October 5, 1881), this early instance of simoleons appears:
Widespread U.S. adoption of simoleon appears to have occurred in 1888–1898, a period during which simoleons appears 18 times in an Elephind.com search (many of them from matches to instances in the St. Paul [Minnesota] Daily Globe], simoleon appears once, and samoleons twice.
Conclusions
It is certainly an interesting coincidence—if that's all it is—that Simon was used in Louisiana (and reported in a magazine with nationwide circulation) with the meaning "a dollar" in 1858, and that simoleon was used in a widely circulated New York satirical magazine with the meaning "money" or "a dollar" in 1881 and 1882.
I can't say why modern etymologists are so unimpressed by the 1859 occurrence of Simon in seeming anticipation of simoleon as used a generation later, but unimpressed they appear to be, as they decline to go beyond "origin unknown" as the source of simoleon. Whether simoleon is ultimately traceable to the British silver sixpence simon of the early 1700s, its connection to the U.S. dollar Simon of 1859 seems not at all far-fetched.