conto
1
9.9
An old unit of money in Portugal equal to one thousand escudos used before the euro
- noun
- Archaic
:
conto
- The price of the meal totaled thirty-five contos before tax.
- million contos
Examples
-
Production increased from 1.5 million contos in 1931 to 2.5 million contos in 1935 (Sales Oliveira 1937).
Academic text (1992) -
Industrial production in the state bounced impressively from 1.94 to 3.5 million contos between 1932 and 1936.
Academic text (1992) -
I now show you what I want to show you at the hotel when you leave me with il conto.
-
He paid the hotel bill in contos before checking out.
-
During the road trip, they spent a few contos on accommodations.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Conto comes from an old Portuguese word meaning 'account' or 'tale', and you can think of it like the English word count. Because it was used for a counted sum, conto came to mean a specific amount of money, so before the euro one conto meant 1,000 escudos.