The French Academy, a group of 40 writers, linguists and scientists, has battled hard to keep anglicisms out of the language.

The Academy is now deciding whether the word coined for the 11 countries which signed up to the single currency is worthy of inclusion in french dictionaries.

Britain's Times newspaper says some purists have suggested it should be 'La Terre Euro' even though 'Euroland' is already common linguistic currency throughout Europe.

Another option would be to give Euroland a final 'e' - a compromise which worked for Concorde, the supersonic Anglo-French plane.

The Euro note has no national symbols

But 'lande' in French does not mean land. The dictionary definition is "vegetation in a temperate zone, principally composed of heather, broom and gorse, generally resulting in the degradation of the forest".

Or as The Times translated it: "A scrub-filled wasteland of little use to man or beast".

Britain's Express newspaper was also swift to point out that 'lande' means wasteland, adding: ''We hope this does not turn out to be prophetic.''

But the extra 'e' option is not popular with all purists. As academician Jean Dutourd commented: ''Whichever way you write it the result is barbaric.''