Plural form of 'centavo,' the monetary unit of various countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
From Portuguese/Spanish 'centavo,' derived from Latin 'centum' (hundred), since 100 centavos typically equal one larger monetary unit. The plural takes a Portuguese/Spanish form.
This word is a linguistic ghost of colonial trade routes—it shows how European monetary systems got reshuffled across the Americas with different languages calling it different names.
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