bezant

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a gold coin of the Byzantine Empire; widely circulated in Europe in the Middle Ages

From Middle English besaunt, from Old French bezant, nominative bezanz, from Latin byzantius (“of Byzantium”).

“Then fore-sheet home as she lifts to the foam--we stand on the outward tack, We are paid in the coin of the white man's trade--the bezant is hard, ay, and black. — The Works of Rudyard Kipling: One Volume Edition, Rudyard Kipling
At the taking up of the table he distributed amongst them his whole cupboard of plate, which weighed eight hundred thousand and fourteen bezants (Each bezant is worth five pounds English money.) of gold, in great antique vessels, huge pots, large basins, big tasses, cups, goblets, candlesticks, comfit-boxes, and other such plate, all of pure massy gold, besides the precious stones, enamelling, and workmanship, which by all men’s estimation was more worth than the matter of the gold. — Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais

bezzant, byzant, solidus

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