Euro-

Euro-

1. Euro-, shortened to Eur- before certain vowels, is one of the more productive combining forms of the 20c, as a linguistic reflection of far-reaching political and economic developments across Europe. The form is first used in the 1950s in hyphened combinations such as Euro-African and Euro-American, and in the institutional names Eurovision (1951, a network of European broadcasting organizations) and Euratom (1956, = European Atomic Energy Community). The first generalized words are Euro-dollar (1960, a dollar held outside the US, though not necessarily in Europe), the disparaging Eurocrat (= European bureaucrat, 1961), and the not much more favourable Eurocentric (= regarded in European terms, 1963). The first uses related to Europe (or Western Europe) generally, and this meaning continues in formations such as Euromissile (1979) and Eurostrategic (1977), whereas many terms that arose in the 1960s and since refer more specifically to the European Community (now Union) in relation to the UK's potential and later actual membership, especially the notorious Eurosceptic (1986) and its antonym Europhile, both used as adjectives and nouns, and other irreverent formations including Eurobabble (1986, in a US source) and Eurojargon.

2. Like many prolific combining forms, Euro- has succeeded in detaching itself and forming a word in its own right:

• The Euro terrorists announced…that they had set up a ‘Western European Revolutionary offensive’ —Evening Standard, 1987

• The name Britannia had been dropped from the deal because its nationalistic connotations could have obvious drawbacks in a pan-Euro venture —European Investor, 1990.

It has also become the informal name of several European-based sports championships, notably in golf and football. With a lower-case initial e- it has been since 1995 the official name of the common currency adopted by some members of the EU, with coins and notes going into circulation in 2002.