A semantic analysis of monetary terms reveals important distinctions, particularly when comparing English and French. The words "money," "currency," "monnaie," "argent," and "devise" have nuanced meanings that are often conflated.

A little semantics:

The English term "money" is a broad concept, while "currency" refers to a specific national unit of exchange. In French, the distinctions are different. When one says "monnaie," it typically refers to small change or coins received in a transaction. However, "la monnaie" can also refer to a state's official currency, such as the Canadian dollar.

The French word "argent" illustrates a different scope. A thief demanding "Donne-moi tout ton argent" ("Give me all your money") is not asking for coins. In a street robbery, "argent" refers specifically to banknotes.

In a more sophisticated financial crime, stealing all of a victim's "argent" means taking their entire wealth from their bank accounts. Thus, "argent" can mean both physical cash and abstract wealth.

A devise is necessarily the currency of another country. If you're French, you would say: "La livre sterling est la devise du Royaume-Uni et l'euro et la monnaie de l'Europe" (The pound sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom and the euro is the currency of Europe).

This semantic distinction is often lost in translation. In English, "money" refers to the broad concept of a medium of exchange, while "currency" refers to the specific system of money in common use, particularly for a country. In French, monnaie can signify both the general concept of money and a specific national currency. The term devise is reserved exclusively for a foreign currency. The confusion arises when English speakers use "currency" in a context where French requires monnaie, and vice-versa. This ambiguity complicates discussions about assets like Bitcoin. In French, one might hear "ce n'est pas une monnaie" (it is not a currency) because bitcoin is not the legal tender of a nation-state. However, this argument conflates monnaie in its sense of "national currency" with monnaie in its broader sense of "money." The claim that it cannot be monnaie because it is not a national currency is a semantic error, and one that has become factually tenuous since El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. Regardless of its legal status in any single country, if we use the broader definition, Bitcoin can be considered a form of monnaie (money), as it functions as a medium of exchange. The French language lacks a dedicated word like the English "money" to cleanly separate the general concept from the national unit, creating a source of confusion. While argent can refer to money, it more broadly means wealth or cash, and does not serve as a perfect equivalent to the English concept of "money".