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弗 means dollar (as in USD, $) in both Korean and Japanese.

Korean

불

[弗] a dollar

Japnese

ドル

noun

  1. dollar (from Dutch, orig. an abbr. of ドルラル; also written as 弗) (see also: ドルラル)

Grand Ricci says that 弗 fú is:

6 (Écon. – Fin.) Car. empl. pr le symbole $ : dollar.

the pronunciation of the dollar symbol in Chinese.

I haven't seen any other acknowledgement of 弗 fú having anything to do with US Dollars in any other dictionaries.

  • Can 弗 Mean Dollar In Chinese?
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    弗 in Canto is pronounced fat1 the same as: 窟 which means 块....wonder if there's a connection there – user3306356♦ Jun 25 '15 at 8:16
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    窟 (hole/cave/den) does not mean 块/塊 (piece/lump/dollar) in any way to me. (Can you show the reference? Thanks.) After all, in Cantonese we don't use 块/塊 to mean dollar (at least spoken). Yes in Chinese we write 一塊錢 but it is seldom spoken out that way in Cantonese. We say 一「蚊」. – leo4jc Jun 25 '15 at 16:22
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    @leo4jc 量詞。塊（指較小的） 一窟布。 – user3306356♦ Jun 25 '15 at 16:34
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From Wiktionary, the possible meanings of 弗 are:

  • as negation (as in, 不 and 否 for "no")
  • gust of wind
  • writing brush

There is no mention if it can mean dollar.

On the other hand, in Japanese, the possible meanings are:

  • fluorine
  • the dollar sign ($)

The reason of the dollar sign is because of the similarity of the sign itself (弗 vs $).

Repurposed for its visual similarity to the dollar symbol $. This reading is ultimately a borrowing from Dutch dollar.

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    Wow! +1 It's amazing how Japanese language re-purposes Chinese characters so easily. With even more similarities to 弗 is the Portuguese Cifrão which has 2 vertical slashes. It was used before the Euro currency. – Armfoot Jun 25 '15 at 13:14
  • @Armfoot sometimes dollar sign is also written with 2 vertical slashes. The rendition on this page really depends on what font your browser chooses. But you're right, the Cifrao is more similar since it's always written with 2 slashes. – Andrew T. Jun 25 '15 at 13:35
2

Chinese usually use 美元 as dollar. For example, 14 dollar is 14 美元. I never saw Chinese use 弗 refered to dollar.

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Someone will use 刀 for dollar because of the pronunciation, but 弗 is not used as $.

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    Yes. That's true. Many of my friends use 刀 as well. They even use "人刀" for RMB. – FortCpp Jun 26 '15 at 19:05

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