Is there a reason we have both Centimos and Centavos?

airplanenut

As far as I can tell, Centimos and Centavos are both used in Spanish-speaking locales (and separately we have centesimos in Italian and cent in the English-speaking world... and in places that just shorten/abbreviate one of the other terms). I'm simply curious if there's a known reason Centimos and Centavos both came to be, or if it just happened and some places went with one term, and others used the other.

And of course, what I'm really getting at is that when I have a pile of Latin American coinage on my desk, it gets annoying to have to read each one to make sure I don't call it the wrong thing.

Sapyx

As far as I can tell, they both mean "one hundredth". Which one is used depends entirely on the laws introducing the currency in question; it's "official name". I'm not sure if there's any subtle difference in meaning in Spanish, as to why one would be chosen over the other. It doesn't seem to be related to local variants in culture or custom; some countries (such as Costa Rica) have historically used both centimos and centavos.

Besides Italy, "centesimo" is also used in two Spanish-speaking contexts: Panama and Uruguay. It's my understanding that "centesimo" is diminutive, implying a much smaller thing than a centavo or centimo implies. Which is an odd choice for Panama, where the centesimo was slated as being on par with the US cent.

There's also "common usage", which evolves in particular places where non-Spanish-named currencies are in use. In modern Spain, for example, the euro-cent is always called "centimo" in Spanish, never "centavo", whereas the cent of the US dollar is always called "centavo".

airplanenut

@Sapyx said:
As far as I can tell, they both mean "one hundredth". Which one is used depends entirely on the laws introducing the currency in question; it's "official name". I'm not sure if there's any subtle difference in meaning in Spanish, as to why one would be chosen over the other. It doesn't seem to be related to local variants in culture or custom; some countries (such as Costa Rica) have historically used both centimos and centavos.

Besides Italy, "centesimo" is also used in two Spanish-speaking contexts: Panama and Uruguay. It's my understanding that "centesimo" is diminutive, implying a much smaller thing than a centavo or centimo implies. Which is an odd choice for Panama, where the centesimo was slated as being on par with the US cent.

There's also "common usage", which evolves in particular places where non-Spanish-named currencies are in use. In modern Spain, for example, the euro-cent is always called "centimo" in Spanish, never "centavo", whereas the cent of the US dollar is always called "centavo".

Thanks! This seems to go along with my thinking/understanding, namely that they're pretty much one in the same, and various names got chosen and the countries stuck with them, but there isn't an obvious reason why one or the other got used. And yes, when I got to the Panama coins in my pile yesterday, I realized my centesimo error. Oh, well... I got to Italy first

hfjacinto

I only collect coins from Portugal and those are centavos.

Sapyx

@hfjacinto said:
I only collect coins from Portugal and those are centavos.

Brazil only used "centavos" too, across all its various currency units, as do most other Portuguese-speaking countries, but post-independence Sao Tome & Principe and Angola are two exceptions that use "centimos", and in Portugal today, the euro-cent is likewise colloquially called the "centimo" rather than "centavo". So the centavo/centimo division seems to occur in the Portuguese language as well.

I will be meeting up with some Latin American friends on the weekend, and see if they can offer any insight.

MrBreeze

I solved that problem with one dot.

Cent.

SYRACUSIAN

Centimo is a word of French roots , un centime, 1/100 of the silver unit such as the franc.. And I disagree into that centesimo,means something lesser than centimo or centavo.Italy used the centesimo as a base copper unit for centuries.

Sapyx

I asked my friends, and they couldn't think of a reason why the different words would be used. I guess it's just one of those "it just is" things.