Green’s Dictionary of Slang

spondulics n.

money.

1851		Athens Post (TN) 26 Dec. 3/3: Good-looking girls are generally poor—while your little dumpy, ill-looking women have generally more ‘spondulicks’ than they know what to do with.
1856		‘Q.K. Philander Doesticks’ Plu-ri-bus-tah 113: [pic. caption] Spondulicks, or ye Tin.
1857		S.F. Call 26 Mar. n.p.: [He] Went to fight the furious tiger, / Went to fight the beast at faro, / And was cleaned out so completely / That he lost his every mopus, / Every single speck of pewter, / Every solitary shiner, / Every brad and every dollar [...] All the brass and all the needful, / All the spondulix and buttons.
1861		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 3/2: [He] knocks down enough ‘spondulix’ to keep her looking well .
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 224: Satiated with greenbacks and spondulicks.
1870		Overland Monthly (CA) Feb. 190: The vulgar names and terms of endearment, derived from and representing gross material commodities: e. g., ‘spuds,’ ‘hash,’ ‘rhino,’ ‘spondulix,’ and the legion of appellatives for alcoholic refreshments and other necessaries of life.
1872		Sydney Morn. Herald 11 jan. 3/5: [A] third [contributor to a US feminist paper] coaches the sex in the latest forms of slang, impressing upon the feminine mind that the newest name for money is ‘spondulix,’ that ‘fusil oil’ stands for whisky, ‘going through you’ for robbery, ‘he’s upon his back’ for bankruptcy.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 96: Of course, lad, you has the right to eat, drink, and be merry here as long as you has the spondulics.
1879		Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Wealth, Ore, Dust, Rocks, Spondulicks, Shekels, Ducats, Nicks, Flimsies, Filthy Lucre, Trash, Shiners, Shinnies—are the synonyms of money.
1881		Fayette Co. Herald 20 Jan. 1/4: If they are found guilty it will take a large lump of ‘spondulix’ to settle.
1884		H.G. Carleton Thompson Street Poker Club 30: ‘Wha—whad yo’ doin’ wif de spondles?’.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 105: I’m derned if I’d live two mile out o’ town, where there ain’t nothing ever goin’ on, not for all his spondulicks.
1886		Sporting Times 24 Apr. 1/3: ‘I must capture some spondees / If I have to pawne my dressing-gowne’.
1888		Lancaster Gaz. 22 Feb. 4/1: The gov’nor ’as sent these boots home to a swell in Savile Row, but I ain’t to part with the spondulics.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 30 Nov. 1/4: Of course the Dead Bird comes in for a share of the spondulicks .
1890		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Genteel Occupation’ Sporting Times 22 Feb. 1/2: Elizabeth went with her aunt to a shop / Where the loveliest gems that spondulicks can buy / Were on sale to all those who had money to drop.
1894		Star (Canterbury, NZ) 12 Dec. 3/2: ‘Spondulix’, as a slang name for money, had its origin in the Greek word spondulos.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 7/1: Taking in the confiding female and then clearing with the ‘spondulix’ has its possibilities.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 14 Dec. 4/1: ‘Spondulicks’ in the bank of course she’d plenty.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 4: spondulix or spondulics n. Money.
1900		T.J. Carey Hebrew Yarns and Dialect Humor 81/2: ‘Fusil oil’ is the new name for whiskey, / ‘Spondulix’ cognomen for pelf.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 23 Mar. 388: Not that they appreciate football or boat-rowing, but they delight in risking a few spondulicks.
1904		G.V. Hobart Jim Hickey 63: Oh! the mazume, the spondools, the cush!
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 60: He’s just loaded with the spondulix, too.
1902		Truth (Sydney) 31 Aug. 8/3: Them as do have got spondulix / Ain’t not allers happiest.
1914		Joyce ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ Dubliners (1956) 119: ‘By God! perhaps you’re right, Joe,’ said Mr O’Connor. ‘Anyway, I wish he’d turn up with the spondulicks.’.
1917		Eve. Current (Carlsbad, NM) 4 Aug. 4/3: Walter Tomlinson has invested his spare ‘spondulix’ [...] and expects to burn the earth at a profit.
1918		E. Pound letter Jan. in Paige (1971) 129: Re Quinn, remember: [...] tis he who sendeth me the Spondos Oligos, which is by interpretation the small tribute or spondooliks wherewith I do pay my contributors, wherefore is my heart softened toward the said J. Q., and he in mine eyes can commit nothing heinous.
1919		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 7 June 9/6: Slang of Money [...] It has been called ‘the actual, the blunt, hard, dirt, evil, flimsy, gilt, iron, John Davis, lurries, moss, oil of angels, pieces, rowdy, spondulicks, tin, wad’ .
1924		F.J. Wilstach Sl. Dict. Stage 29: ‘Mazum,’ ‘mazuma,’ ‘cush,’ ‘denoya,’ ‘rocks,’ ‘spons,’ ‘spondulix,’ ‘long green,’ ‘yellowbacks,’ ‘dough,’ ‘mononny,’ ‘da mon’.
1927		(con. 1910s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 283: Be a bishop myself in ten years — with all their spondulicks and big churches and big membership.
1928		M. Bodenheim Georgie May 36: He won’ foahk out the spondulix.
1930		S. Henry Conquering Our Great Amer. Plains 182: This wouldn’t result in much, yet small the cost in ‘spondulics’ or ‘elbow grease’.
1939		Williamstown Chron. (Vic.) 15 Apr. 2/3: No ‘splondlui’ [sic] to slip out to the racecourse; not even a ‘cracker’ for an interest.
1943		in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 249: I have plenty of mola – meaning spondulix.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 84: ‘Smash, dough, fiddlies, coin, tin, hay, oot, shekels, sponduliks,’ said Gordon. ‘I’m still the highest paid member of this company.’.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 106: I’d rather lose the spondoolicks than see him get his brains knocked loose.
1953		D. Cusack Caddie 210: It’s no good paying out good spondulicks if yer c’n help it.
1957		‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 41: ‘Spondooliks, Pat.’ He handed Pat an envelope.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 101: [M]y dirty great roll of spondoolix.
1966		P. White Solid Mandala (1976) 126: Some people have all the luck! Or spondulicks.
1973		A. Salkey ‘Is the lan’ I want’ Jamaica (1983) 99: Plenty big talk, / spliff an’ so, / spondulicks, / Panama Man.
1975		(con. 1900s) G. Swarthout Shootist 211: They really spent the spondulix on that one.
1989		A. Higgins ‘The Bird I Fancied’ in Helsingør Station and Other Departures 138: I have the spondoolicks.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 241: And where do we get the spondulicks to pay for all this, exactly?
1994		J. O’Connor Secret World of the Irish Male (1995) 14: Forking out good hard-earned spondulix.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 88: She grabs the spondooli with both hands.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 160: He can offer the sponduliks as many times as he likes.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 44: He ask his ex-girlfriend Julie for a load of spondooli.
2004		(con. 1980) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 246: I’ve got your spondulicks. Twelve hundred, weren’t it?
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 144: Ah bet ye he’s goat tons ay spondoolays.
2020		A. Killilea Boyo-wulf at https://boyowulf.home.blog 20 Feb. 🌐 I’ll have to give the good lad some spondoolies for his bravery.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 9: ‘We have to raise the sponds’.