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 s

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?!