Word origin of dollar

Many large size coins minted during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance were made from silver mined in valleys of central Europe. The Word for "valley" in various German dialects is either "Tal" or "Thal", roughly pronounced "tahhl". Coins were often known by the name of the valley from which the silver was mined; for example a Joachimsthal coin was made from silver mined in the Joachim valley of Bohemia. Furthermore, in German a person or thing that originates in a particular place often is indicated by putting the suffix "er" on a noun, similar to saying in English that someone is "a New Yorker" to indicate they're from NY. Thus the coins became known as <valley name>thalers, e.g. Joachimsthalers.

Eventually the Word was shortened to the more generic "Thaler", which morphed into various forms in other countries including "dalar" and "daalder" in Dutch, which eventually ended up as "dollar" in England.