cash: [16] Cash originally meant ‘money-box’. English acquired it via French casse or Italian cassa from Latin capsa ‘box’ (source of English case). It was not until the mid 18th century that this underlying sense died out, leaving the secondary ‘money’ (which had already developed before the word entered English). Cashier ‘person in charge of money’ [16] is a derivative, coming from French caissier or perhaps from Dutch cassier, but the verb cashier ‘dismiss’ [16] is completely unrelated.
It comes from Dutch casseren, a borrowing from Old French casser ‘discharge, annul’. This in turn goes back to Latin quassāre ‘break up’, source of English quash. => case
1590s, "money box;" also "money in hand, coin," from Middle French caisse "money box" (16c.), from Provençal caissa or Italian cassa, from Latin capsa "box" (see case (n.2)); originally the money box, but the secondary sense of the money in it became sole meaning 18c. Cash crop is attested from 1831; cash flow from 1954; the mechanical cash register from 1878.
Like many financial terms in English (bankrupt, etc.), ultimately from Italian. Not related to (but influencing the form of) the colonial British cash "Indian monetary system, Chinese coin, etc.," which is from Tamil kasu, Sanskrit karsha, Sinhalese kasi.
