Money seems to be about gold but banks about silver. Is this due to an evolution of the status of the valuable metals themselves? Is it a complicated (e.g. ateji) etymology?
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1 Answer
Firstly, the native word 金（かね） in お金 only means metal and not gold. You may have mixed it up with the Sino-Japanese 金（きん） that means gold (it also means metal as a morpheme, but not for a standalone word). The native word for gold is こがね "yellow-metal". Thus money is called お金 just because coins are made of metals. No mystery :)
On the other hand, 銀行 is a relatively newly imported word from Chinese originally means 銀 "silver" + 行 "guild". What was traditionally the standard money in Japan is a quite debatable topic (gold, silver, copper, or rice??), but China has a long tradition of silver standard system, so that's why silver is the synonym of money for them.
answered Apr 28, 2019 at 6:37
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Interesting, I'm finding explanations that 銀行 is a wasei-kango.– dROOOzeCommented Apr 28, 2019 at 7:00
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3@droooze FYI I've found old Chartered Bank and HSBC banknotes issued on 1865, prior to Japanese Meiji restroration, have 銀行 printed on their face. Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 7:28
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1Ahhh okay, as ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%8A%80%E8%A1%8C suggests and from what I could find the first appearance of the term does indeed look like its from the name of HSBC. I guess I didn't find the explanation convincing at first because China had bank-type establishments since the Song Dynasty called 錢莊, and 銀行 originally referred to a Silversmith-type profession in Classical Chinese.– dROOOzeCommented Apr 28, 2019 at 7:31
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At some point it was decided to use 金 for かね, not 銀, etc.Why? Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 8:56
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1@droooze Thank you for your input. That info adds to fun when you know that the earliest form of banking in England was assumed by goldsmiths. Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 10:48