When Gold Commingles with Dirt!

If you’ve ever heard anyone claim to have “hit pay dirt,” it usually means the person has just become extremely lucky.

This phrase, along with many others we still use today, is a relic of the gold rush era in the mid-1800s, when gold was discovered commingled (see definition and hear pronunciation below) with the soil in California’s fields.

In the years since miners rushed to the West Coast of the United States to “strike it rich,” the language they used to describe their windfalls has filtered into modern English.

The football team the San Francisco 49ers even takes its name from the term “forty-niners,” the nickname for men who went west in 1849 to make their fortunes!

Cool word question of the day: What would you do if you found gold, or some other treasure, commingled with the soil in your backyard?

Commingle: To mix, blend or combine.

Click here to hear a pronunciation of commingle.

https://coolwordclub.com/wp-content/uploads/commingle.mp3