What does “qirsh” (قرش) mean in Arabic?

The mysterious boat in this clip is filming a movie about القروش — the sharks. But قرش is one of Arabic’s great double words: it’s also a piaster, the small coin, so قروش means “sharks” in a nature documentary and “money” in everyday speech. ما معيش قرش is “I’m broke — I don’t have a penny.” Context is the only fin that tells you which one just swam past.

The two meanings arrived by different routes: the coin traces back through Ottoman Turkish kuruş to the European Groschen, while the fish is the native word. The money sense powers idioms like القرش الأبيض ينفع في اليوم الأسود — “a white piaster saves you on a black day,” Arabic’s “save for a rainy day.” Fittingly, English also calls a ruthless money-maker a shark.