Montevideo (English)
Where does "Montevideo" come from?
The name Montevideo originates from the Spanish and Portuguese word 'monte,' meaning 'hill' or 'mountain,' which traces back to the Latin 'mons' and the Proto-Indo-European root referring to something that stands out or towers. While the term describes the city's prominent landscape, popular folklore offers creative interpretations, such as an abbreviating reading meaning 'sixth hill from east to west' or a Portuguese sailor's exclamation of 'Monte vide eu,' meaning 'I see a mountain.'
Full etymology tree
- Montevideo (English), 'The capital city of Uruguay.'
- compound monte (Spanish), 'mountain, mount'
- inherited monte (Old Galician-Portuguese), 'hill'
- derived montem (Latin), 'accusative singular of mōns'
- derived mons (Latin), 'mountain, mount'
- inherited *monts (Proto-Italic)
- inherited *món-tis (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived *men- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to think, mind'
- inherited *món-tis (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *monts (Proto-Italic)
- derived mons (Latin), 'mountain, mount'
- derived montem (Latin), 'accusative singular of mōns'
- inherited monte (Old Galician-Portuguese), 'hill'
- compound video (Portuguese)
- contraction vide (Portuguese), 'vine, grapevine'
- contraction eu (Portuguese), 'I (first-person singular personal pronoun)'
- compound monte (Spanish), 'mountain, mount'
Direct ancestors
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris