cowrie

American  

[kou-ree] / ˈkaʊ ri /

Or cowry

noun

plural

cowries

1. the highly polished, usually brightly colored shell of a marine gastropod of the genus Cypraea, as that of C. moneta money cowrie, used as money in certain parts of Asia and Africa, or that of C. tigris, used for ornament.

2. the gastropod itself.

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cowrie British  

/ ˈkaʊrɪ /

noun

1. any marine gastropod mollusc of the mostly tropical family Cypraeidae, having a glossy brightly marked shell with an elongated opening

2. the shell of any of these molluscs, esp the shell of Cypraea moneta ( money cowry ), used as money in parts of Africa and S Asia

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Etymology

Origin of cowrie

First recorded in 1655–65; from Hindi, Urdu kauṛī, kauḍī, from Sanskrit kapardikā, diminutive of kaparda-, of Dravidian origin; compare Tamil kavaṭi, kotu “shell, cowrie”