4 ms·

More about this history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidade_real_de_valor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidade_real_de_valor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

by schoen 5y ago

More about this history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidade_real_de_valor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidade_real_de_valor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano_Real https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano_Real A subtlety about the name is that "real" in Portuguese has two different meanings with two different etymologies: 'real, genuine' from Latin realis (res + -alis) 'pertaining to a thing', and 'royal' from Latin regalis (rex + -alis) 'pertaining to a king'. Portuguese often loses historical intervocalic consonants (the word for consonant itself is "consoante"!), so the words corresponding to English "real" and "regal" are the same in Portuguese. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/real#Portuguese https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/real#Portuguese My current understanding is that the use of this name for the currency was an intentional pun: there was a Portuguese currency with this name (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_real https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_real) where it was interpreted, and meant to be interpreted, entirely as royal (it was issued only under the Portuguese monarchy), while the URV explicitly intended people to think of the real, genuine interpretation of the name.

smallnamespace 5y ago
If you're in the Bay Area, El Camino Real is literally 'The Royal Road', i.e. the King's Highway (Spanish went through a similar process as Portuguese). Also, English 'regal' and 'royal' are both cognate to Spanish/Portuguese 'real', borrowed once from Latin and again from French. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
- noneeeed 5y ago
  My favourite example of a word that has entered English is "loot", which derives from the Hindi word "lūṭ", and was bought back by members of the British East India Company during the early years of them doing exactly that to India. It just so perfectly encapsulates the empire.
anm89 5y ago
I never understood what the intent was here. That is really fascinating!
hnedeotes 5y ago
As a bit of interesting trivia, Portugal's monetary unit before the Euro was the "Escudo", which literally means "Shield".
- ithkuil 5y ago
  Many medieval are called "shields" (ecú, scudo, ...) bacause they are marked with the noble coat of arms of who issues them. The coat of arms is rendered primarily in shields and shields are ore often featured directly in the coins
  - hnedeotes 5y ago
    Yeah I can see the association with the coat of arms - not like I had a great understanding of the currency naming or anything but went to check since I knew "escudo" had to have been in use after the implementation of the republic (which dethroned the royal house) - and in fact they substituted the "real" by the "escudo". It's a fun take having it named directly as "shield", since the ability to control the money production can be seen as a weapon/defence.
brabel 5y ago
There was a long history of using "réis" as the currency (since the 16th century)... which was only replaced by the cruzeiro in the 1940's, then cruzado for a short time, and then finally the temporary URV and the more permanent real... see how they like to play with the words? Réis is just an inflection for reais (plural of real, meaning royal in this context, as far as I know) as they explain in this article in Portuguese (which seems to freely exchange reais and réis - e.g. it says the currency was called real in 1833, but the printed notes say réis up to the 1942 ones): https://vejasp.abril.com.br/blog/memoria/evolucao-moeda-brasileira/ https://vejasp.abril.com.br/blog/memoria/evolucao-moeda-bras... rél/réis -> cruzeiro(s) -> cruzeiro(s) novo(s) -> cruzeiro(s) -> cruzado(s) -> cruzado(s) novo(s) -> cruzeiro (again!!) -> cruzeiro(s) real(s) -> real/reais Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/real-Brazilian-currency https://www.britannica.com/topic/real-Brazilian-currency I don't know why they changed the historical name of the currency from réis to reais (some old people still say réis, and contos(s), which a long time ago meant a thousand-thousand réis because a thousand réis was 1 réis of the older Portugues money - hence why you'll hear a lot of older people actually use the term merréis (which is a conjunction of mil (thousand) and réis!) but I guess that was just a play of words, like cruzado and cruzeiro which are also similar?!
- schoen 5y ago
  I always thought the cruzado and cruzeiro were references to the Southern Cross (Cruzeiro do Sul), but apparently at least the former wasn't intended that way because the cruzado was a currency unit in Portugal before the beginning of the Portuguese colonization of Brazil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_real#Coins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_real#Coins

by schoen 5y ago

smallnamespace 5y ago

If you're in the Bay Area, El Camino Real is literally 'The Royal Road', i.e. the King's Highway (Spanish went through a similar process as Portuguese). Also, English 'regal' and 'royal' are both cognate to Spanish/Portuguese 'real', borrowed once from Latin and again from French. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

noneeeed 5y ago
My favourite example of a word that has entered English is "loot", which derives from the Hindi word "lūṭ", and was bought back by members of the British East India Company during the early years of them doing exactly that to India. It just so perfectly encapsulates the empire.

anm89 5y ago

I never understood what the intent was here. That is really fascinating!

hnedeotes 5y ago

As a bit of interesting trivia, Portugal's monetary unit before the Euro was the "Escudo", which literally means "Shield".

ithkuil 5y ago
Many medieval are called "shields" (ecú, scudo, ...) bacause they are marked with the noble coat of arms of who issues them. The coat of arms is rendered primarily in shields and shields are ore often featured directly in the coins
- hnedeotes 5y ago
  Yeah I can see the association with the coat of arms - not like I had a great understanding of the currency naming or anything but went to check since I knew "escudo" had to have been in use after the implementation of the republic (which dethroned the royal house) - and in fact they substituted the "real" by the "escudo". It's a fun take having it named directly as "shield", since the ability to control the money production can be seen as a weapon/defence.

brabel 5y ago

There was a long history of using "réis" as the currency (since the 16th century)... which was only replaced by the cruzeiro in the 1940's, then cruzado for a short time, and then finally the temporary URV and the more permanent real... see how they like to play with the words? Réis is just an inflection for reais (plural of real, meaning royal in this context, as far as I know) as they explain in this article in Portuguese (which seems to freely exchange reais and réis - e.g. it says the currency was called real in 1833, but the printed notes say réis up to the 1942 ones): https://vejasp.abril.com.br/blog/memoria/evolucao-moeda-brasileira/ https://vejasp.abril.com.br/blog/memoria/evolucao-moeda-bras... rél/réis -> cruzeiro(s) -> cruzeiro(s) novo(s) -> cruzeiro(s) -> cruzado(s) -> cruzado(s) novo(s) -> cruzeiro (again!!) -> cruzeiro(s) real(s) -> real/reais Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/real-Brazilian-currency https://www.britannica.com/topic/real-Brazilian-currency I don't know why they changed the historical name of the currency from réis to reais (some old people still say réis, and contos(s), which a long time ago meant a thousand-thousand réis because a thousand réis was 1 réis of the older Portugues money - hence why you'll hear a lot of older people actually use the term merréis (which is a conjunction of mil (thousand) and réis!) but I guess that was just a play of words, like cruzado and cruzeiro which are also similar?!

schoen 5y ago
I always thought the cruzado and cruzeiro were references to the Southern Cross (Cruzeiro do Sul), but apparently at least the former wasn't intended that way because the cruzado was a currency unit in Portugal before the beginning of the Portuguese colonization of Brazil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_real#Coins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_real#Coins