Thanks for your service

[Adisa]

I was driving and noticed the registration plate on the vehicle in front of me read, sold1er.  The odd spelling of the word soldier caused me to try to understand what the word actually means.  I saw sol, which I know to be sun and the word dier, but I knew the word soldier couldn't possibly mean one who dies for the sun; so there was only one thing to do.

I pulled out a dictionary and found that soldier is the combination of two words sol, meaning money or coin and the suffix -ier meaning one concerned with.  -ier also lead me to the suffix -eer, which means one concerns with, or employed in connection with, or busies himself with something.    

The etymology in Wikipedia reads, The word soldier derives from the Middle English word soudeour, from Anglo-French soudeer or soudeour, meaning mercenary, from soudee, meaning shilling's worth or wage, from sou or soud, shilling.^[1] The word is also related to the Medieval Latin soldarius, meaning soldier (literally, "one having pay").^[2] These words ultimately derive from the Late Latin word solidus, referring to an Ancient Roman coin used in the Byzantine Empire.^[1][2]

Etymology online reads, soldier (n.)c. 1300, souder, from Old French soudier, soldier "one who serves in the army for pay," from Medieval Latin soldarius "a soldier" (source also of Spanish soldado, Italian soldato), literally "one having pay," from Late Latin soldum, extended sense of accusative of Latin solidus, name of a Roman gold coin (see solidus). 

Most have come to believe or someone has defined the word soldier as a sense of honor, a badge of courage or a symbol of fighting for freedom or defending one's country.  Could the O'Jays have been pointing in this direction with their song, "For The Love Of Money."  

1 Timothy 6:10Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

10 For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.

1 Timothy 6:10Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)

10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 

[Adisa]

The origin of the word "mint" is ascribed to the manufacture of silver coin at Rome in 269 BC at the temple of Juno Moneta. This goddess became the personification of money, and her name was applied both to money and to its place of manufacture. Roman mints were spread widely across the Empire, and were sometimes used for propaganda purposes. The populace often learned of a new Roman Emperor when coins appeared with the new Emperor's portrait. Some of the emperors who ruled only for a short time made sure that a coin bore their image.