Kohle

What it means

1. 1.

   Cash, dough. The most widely used German money slang, neutral enough for a workplace conversation and understood everywhere.

2. 2.

   'Kohle machen' means to earn serious money; 'die Kohle stimmt' means the pay is good.

Literally: Coal.

Examples with translations

• Ich hab gerade keine Kohle.

  I'm skint at the moment.

• Damit machst du richtig Kohle.

  You can make proper money with that.

Where it comes from

Nineteenth-century slang in which coal stands for the substance you cannot live without and must constantly buy — the same figure as English 'bread'. The Ruhr coalfields reinforced but did not create it. It sits in a large family of money words (Knete, Kies, Zaster, Moneten, Schotter), several of which came in through Rotwelsch and Yiddish.

First attested: 19th century

Other forms

Similar terms:

Knete, Kies, Schotter, Moneten