shekel

noun

Etymology: From Hebrew שֶׁקֶל (shékel, “shekel”), from שָׁקַל (shakál, “to weigh”), from Akkadian 𒂅 (šiqlum).

1. A currency unit of both ancient and modern Israel.

   “So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

   “"Beauty is naught to him, because there are lips more honey-sweet; and wealth is naught, because others can weigh him down with heavier shekels; and fame is naught, because there have been greater men than he."”

2. Money.

   “Her gownlet cost five hundred beans; / Her furs, four figures in a row; / Her hat removed from papa's jeans / A hundred shekels more or so.”

   “[…] after the 1887-9 campaign was the great refuge of the destitute who, as they could not hope to rake in a breast-full of medals and decorations, expected, at any rate, to amass a good few shekels.”

3. An ancient unit of weight equivalent to one-fiftieth of a mina.

   “And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;”