Green’s Dictionary of Slang

monish n.

money.

c.1687		‘Mac O Bonniclabbero of Drogheda’ Bog Witticisms Preface: I caun remaumber de Time, vaan me fauder vash mauke Retorne of a grate dele vary mush Monish, be Chreest.
1746		Irish Miscellany 5: [as previous].
1781		M.P. Andrews Dissipation V 80: To be sure, my Lorsh, if I recover my monish, I shall think less to loosh my daughter [OED].
1804		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt II Vol. I Bk II 442: It is all de love of de monish, said a Jew.
c.1815		‘The Doctrine of an Israelite’ in Coll. of English Ballads 102: I never stick at trifles when there’s monish in the way!
1827		W.T. Moncrieff Bashful Man II iv: Vant my moniesh, Mr. Blushington? [...] and I’ve never seen the colour of your moniesh.
1833		‘Moses And Rachael’ in Regular Thing, And No Mistake 84: Shelling rhuparps, and hard-vare, I travell’d apout, / Of monish I vas a good earner.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Mar. 3/3: The Rev. Editor drinks all the proceeds, and the Printer all the monish.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 107: If you succeeds, you will have monish, much monish.
1850		Illus. London News 31 Aug. 183/2: The words I heard were [...] couched in the purest and raciest Houndsditch slang [...] ‘l shay, young’un, here’s a shance; fork up a bob, and I’ll put you on a lay you never know nothink of, to vin no end of monish vith the ivories, or the blacks and reds’.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 15: De price he’s paid of dat will cover de loss of de monish on de others.
1878		Sporting Times 28 Dec. 7/2: Heis not a West-End Jew. He never lends monish.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Sept. 13/4: He saw the joke before he did his monish.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 7 June 42/1: ‘What’s your name?’[...] ‘Solomod Ishaacs’ [...] ‘What’s your religion?’ ‘Ready monish’.
1887		West Kansas World 3 Sept. 8/5: ‘But where do you get the monish?’ ‘The monish? [...] venever I goes I takes vit me a silver spoon or a knife [...] and I get two or three dollars for them. It’s easy easy as pie.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Mar. 2/3: [He] thought it far better to sacrifice a good ring and fifty golden pieces of his much-beloved monish.
1895		Mirror of Life 30 Mar. 15/1: [E]nough to make old Abe, the famous pugilist [...] ask weepingly, ‘Oh, vy vas the monish kept out of the family?’ And ditto repeato must be the exclamations of Sam, Ike, and even ‘Big Joe’.
c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. xii: 🌐 Full loaded both ways every trip, and me grabbing the monish till I could feel my nose growing big and hooked, and my eyes taking the appearance of black beads.
1905		Marvel III:53 4: Heaps undt heaps of monish!
1912		T.A. Dorgan Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit 9 Jan. [synd. cartoon strip] ‘Gee whiz there’s my tailor for his dough’ [...] ‘I get de monish or I stop it de veddink’.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 77: Whilst holding out their hands [...] repeating ‘Monish, Monish’.