sycee

American  

[sahy-see] / saɪˈsi /

noun

1. fine uncoined silver in lumps of various sizes usually bearing a banker's or assayer's stamp or mark, formerly used in China as a medium of exchange.

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sycee British  

/ saɪˈsiː /

noun

1. silver ingots formerly used as a medium of exchange in China

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Etymology

Origin of sycee

1705–15; < Chinese dial. (Guangdong) sai-sì, akin to Chinese xìsī silk floss; so called because it can be made into wire as fine as silk thread

Example Sentences

Early one morning I was roused by Rung Budruck, the Captain's favourite sycee or groom.

From The Argosy Vol. 51, No. 5, May, 1891 by Wood, Charles W.

There are enormous masses of silver sycee in nearly everybody's hands, and I am certain now that several of our chefs de mission are in clover.

From Indiscreet Letters From Peking Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, from Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900—The Year of Great Tribulation by Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)

The Bourgeois Philibert had exported largely to China the newly discovered ginseng, for which at first the people of the flowery kingdom paid, in their sycee silver, ounce for ounce.

From The Golden Dog by Kirby, William

Indeed, the only men we could find were some converts engaged in stacking up silver shoes, or sycee, in a secluded quadrangle.

From Indiscreet Letters From Peking Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, from Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900—The Year of Great Tribulation by Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)

The notes are of three kinds: for cash, dollars, and sycee.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 439 Volume 17, New Series, May 29, 1852 by Chambers, William