Colloquial Expressions
"Conto" was the unofficial multiple of the escudo: 1 conto meant 1000$00, 2 contos meant 2000$00 and so on. The original expression was "conto de réis", which meant "one million réis". Since the escudo was worth 1000 réis (the older currency), therefore one "conto" was the same as a thousand escudos. The expression remained in usage after the advent of th euro, albeit less often, meaning €5, roughly worth 1000 escudos.
Read more about this topic: Portuguese Escudo
Famous quotes containing the words colloquial and/or expressions:
“Mormon colonization south of this point in early times was characterized as “going over the Rim,” and in colloquial usage the same phrase came to connote violent death.”
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We ought to celebrate this hour by expressions of manly joy. Not thanks, not prayer seem quite the highest or truest name for our communication with the infinite,—but glad and conspiring reception,—reception that becomes giving in its turn, as the receiver is only the All-Giver in part and infancy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)