IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchBlanchir de l'argent
Meaning: To launder money.
Literally: To whiten money
Example: “D'après l'enquête, le casino servait à blanchir de l'argent.” — According to the investigation, the casino was used to launder money.
Origin: Blanchir means to whiten and also to clean, and laundering money is making dirty money come out clean, with no trace of where it came from. The popular story that the term began with Al Capone's laundromats in 1920s Chicago is a myth: the English term "money laundering" is first found in the early 1970s, around the Watergate scandal. French uses blanchir for the same idea, a verb it had long used for clearing someone of an accusation.
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