What does conto mean?
Conto is a noun denoting a former unit of currency used in Portugal, Brazil, and certain other Portuguese-influenced territories. Originally, a conto represented one million réis, the old Portuguese coinage, making it a convenient shorthand for large sums much as people today speak of millions rather than counting individual units. When Portugal adopted the escudo, the conto was retained informally as a term for one thousand escudos, and it lingered in everyday speech and commerce well into the twentieth century before the euro rendered such expressions obsolete. The word appears most often now in historical writing, literature, and discussions of numismatics, where it helps readers grasp the scale of prices, salaries, and fortunes in earlier eras. Though no longer part of any circulating currency, conto remains useful vocabulary for anyone reading Portuguese-language history or classic Brazilian and Portuguese novels.
nounA former monetary unit of Portugal, Brazil, and some former Portuguese territories, originally equivalent to one million réis and later to one thousand escudos. It survives as an informal money amount in parts of South America.
- A former Portuguese and Brazilian monetary unit, historically worth one million réis and later one thousand escudos.
"The estate was valued at several contos, a fortune by the standards of the day."
"The plantation changed hands for three hundred contos."
"He kept his savings in escudos, reckoning them in contos as his grandfather had done in réis."
Standard English plural; the word also appears in Portuguese phrases such as contos de réis.
"The house sold for fifty contos, an enormous sum at the time."
In 19th-century Brazil, fortunes were counted in contos de réis — each one a cool million reis, making 'a conto' the Victorian-era equivalent of saying 'a mil'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of conto
Conto comes from the Portuguese word for 'account' or 'computation', ultimately deriving from the Latin verb computare, meaning to calculate or reckon. It shares this root with the English words count, account, and compute, all of which trace back through Latin to the same idea of tallying numbers. The monetary sense arose because a conto literally meant a counted sum — a round million of something — before becoming fixed as a specific currency value.
How conto is actually used
Conto is chiefly of historical interest today, encountered in older literature, historical accounts, and numismatic contexts relating to Portugal and Brazil. The plural is normally contos. In some South American countries (notably Chile and Ecuador) local units called contos existed at various times.
Easily confused with conto
A contour is an outline or shape line on a map or surface, whereas a conto is a historical unit of Portuguese currency.
A canto is a division of a long poem, while a conto is a monetary unit; they differ by only one letter.