Mint is a plant with a cool, fresh taste and smell, used in food, drinks, and medicine. As a different noun, a mint is also a place where coins are officially made.
The plant name comes from Old English ‘minte,’ from Latin ‘mentha,’ from Greek ‘minthē.’ The coin meaning comes from Latin ‘moneta,’ a title of the goddess Juno, whose temple in Rome housed a mint; this later merged in English spelling with the plant word.
The cool herb in your tea and the place that makes money share the same spelling by historical accident. That’s why ‘in mint condition’—meaning perfect—originally had more to do with freshly made coins than with anything mint-flavored.
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