Meaning
Counterfeit or otherwise illegitimate currency; by extension, any money that is dubious, artificially inflated, or not what it appears, such as foreign notes that look odd, casino chips and play money, or a currency on the verge of collapse. Informal and jocular; usually said with a smirk rather than as a legal accusation. Informal and joking in tone, though it can shade into serious fraud contexts. Regional use: American English origin; now General English.
Origin
An American coinage. The 'funny' is not 'amusing' but the older sense 'odd, suspicious', which Etymonline dates to 1806 and describes as originally U.S. Southern; the same source attests 'funny money' for counterfeit bills in 1938, adding that the rhyme may have helped the phrase stick. Merriam-Webster, however, gives a first known use of 1901 and noted in 2021 that newly found evidence pushes the phrase back to the early 1890s, which makes 1938 a late citation rather than a birth date; the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins likewise places the phrase in the 1900s United States, used of forged money. The widening from counterfeits to any questionable currency - inflating scrip, play money, unstable foreign cash - is a natural extension of 'funny' as 'not quite right', documented in modern dictionary senses such as Merriam-Webster's 'artificially inflated currency'.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- funny-money (attributive)
- paid in funny money
- passing funny money
Usage Examples
- The vending machine rejected the bill twice, and the clerk laughed and said it looked like funny money.
- Prosecutors showed that the casino had been laundering funny money through nearly forty shell accounts.
- With the currency collapsing, salaries were effectively paid in funny money within a few weeks.