Zeni

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zeni is a word that is standard Japanese (銭) for loose change. It comes from an archaic small-change denomination used in pre-Meiji times. It has also become slang for money in general. The word is used to represent money in a variety of anime, manga, and Japanese influenced video games in order to remain familiar to the viewer without choosing a real currency.

It is especially common in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series and Capcom's Mega Man series and Breath of Fire series, in which it is spelled "zenny" and has the symbol Ƶ. This term is also used in the MMORPG Ragnarok Online (although uses only one "n"). It is also the unit of currency in Monster Hunter, though the word 'zeni' is rarely used; it is merely represented as 'z.'

"Zeni" is also a name given to boys in Albania which is short for "Shkelzen" (narrowing the name only to the last three letters "Zen-i"). It is pronounced as "zenny" and is also often written as "Xeni" in the northern regions of the country.