Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mazuma n.

also mazooboes, mazooma, mazume, mazums
[Yid., ult. Heb. mazuma, prepared, ready; note Barry Popik mail to American Dialect Society List 6 Sept. 2002: ‘There are two earlier [than 1900] New York Times hits. On 6 September 1890, pg. 3, there is a horse called “Mazumah.” On 28 October 1890, pg. 3, there is a horse called “Mazuma.”’]

1. money.

San Bernardino Dly Courier 2 Mar. 2/2: [T]he mystical Colonel Mazuma, who haunts the lobby of the capital with a well-filled sack.
[US]T.J. Carey Hebrew Yarns and Dialect Humor 89/1: But nefer mind — he maigs us crin, / Ant I haf hoid a rumor; / Besides his chokes, he also maigs / A lot of real ‘mazooma’.
[US]‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 33: He annexed himself to a mammoth mass of mazuma by the refined process of inheritance.
[US]G.V. Hobart Jim Hickey 14: We're a sad bunch of ploughboys on this old farm of a world when we haven’t a little mazume in the vest pocket.
[US]‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 19: We’ll simply put up a thousand each [...] and after the opening night begin to gather in the mazooboes.
[US]‘O. Henry’ ‘Mammon and the Archer’ in Four Million (1915) 132: Don’t forget to burn a few punk sticks in the joss house to the great god Mazuma from time to time.
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) 17 Nov. 9/1: The upstate yoekel [sic] [...] unbuckling his mazume.
[US]J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 61: Oh, they are real hummers, your boss and mine, when it comes to sheddin’ the mazuma an’ never mindin’ other folks’ feelin’s.
[US]Ade ‘The New Fable of the Lonesome Camp’ in Ade’s Fables 261: After [...] the Collectors had brought in the Dinero, then Elam had to sit at a Mahogany Desk [...] and figure how much of the hard-earned Mazuma would be doled out to his greedy Employees.
[US]F.J. Wilstach Sl. Dict. Stage 29: ‘Mazum,’ ‘mazuma,’ ‘cush,’ ‘denoya,’ ‘rocks,’ ‘spons,’ ‘spondulix,’ ‘long green,’ ‘yellowbacks,’ ‘dough,’ ‘mononny,’ ‘da mon’.
[Aus]Truth (Brisbane) 27 Apr. 5/7: 'Come across with the mazums; come clean, divvy. I want the coin, see?’.
[US]R.E. Howard ‘Pit of the Serpent’ Fight Stories July 🌐 This house used to be owned by a crazy Spaniard with more mazuma than brains.
[US]A.E. Duckett ‘Truckin ’round Brooklyn’ in N.Y. Age 18 July 7/1: Others dragging in the mazuma with holiday jobs (white collar species).
[UK]S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 62: When we’ve got enough of the mazuma I’m gonna open a fish and chipper.
[Aus]L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 34: This ‘Lolly’s’ a beauty [...] He comes up here one night and blows down my ear about all the mazooma he’s won.
[US]M. Spillane One Lonely Night 68: You’ve brought in a lot of mazuma.
[US](con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 319: While you’re out there, fighting for mom’s apple pie, your A-hole buddy [...] is raking in the old mazooma.
[US]P. Highsmith Two Faces of January (1988) 213: ‘He’s got a lot of mazuma, eh?’ Niko asked dreamily.
[Aus]J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 21: If it’s just the mazooma that’s worrying you, don’t be too proud to say so.
[UK]A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 305: Mazooma for pozzy, as my dad used to say. Died at Gallipoli.
[Aus]D. Ireland Burn 65: All you need now is the mazuma, the dough, the lettuce, the gelt, the loot, the spondulicks.
[UK](con. 1930s) Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 17: ‘Mazuma’ was sometimes used, more often by the film and radio comedians than the public.
[Aus]R. McDonald Rough Wallaby 210: A supply of betting money was a ‘mazuma’.
[US]T. Dorsey Cadillac Beach 189: On the other side, a man was pacing. [...] Talking to himself: ‘Need to run down the Chinese angle on the shylock’s mazuma [...]’.
[US]T. Pluck ‘Letters to Santa’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 86: He’d want mezuma, which I didn’t have.

2. a dollar bill.

[US]I. Reed Free-Lance Pallbearers 49: ‘That’ll be five mazumas.’ I shoved the bills into his hand.