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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word real

real1 actual, true

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1422 a Galician document cited by Lorenzo, spelt rrayal
Borrowed from
Latin realis
Ultimate origin
Latin rēs
Etymology tree of real1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin rēs
French rien
Latin reālis
French réel
Italian reale
Portuguese real
Romanian real
From the same root · real1
Latin quārē ← rēs
Latin rēspūblica ← rēs
Latin reus ← rēs
French réellement ← reālis
Latin reālitās ← reālis
French réaliser ← réel
French réalisme ← réel
French réaliste ← réel
French surréel ← réel
Romanian realitate ← real

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ʁeˈaw/, [heˈaʊ̯][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ʁeˈaw/, [χeˈaʊ̯][1]
  • Portugal: /ʁiˈal/, [ʁiˈaɫ][1]
  • Portugal, Southern: /ʁiˈa.li/[1]

Forms

real m or f (plural reais, comparable, comparative mais real, superlative o mais real or realíssimo)[1]

Etymology

The word for “actual, true” is borrowed from Late Latin reālis (“actual, of things”), a derivative of Latin rēs (“thing, matter”).[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary treats it as inherited through Old Galician-Portuguese real, while its Old Galician-Portuguese entry calls it a learned borrowing, and the Academia's dictionary names the Latin source as Medieval Latin.[1][5]

The same Latin adjective is behind Spanish real, Italian reale and French réel.[6] In Spanish Corominas dates the learned word only from 1607.[7] The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *reis and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *reh₁ís (“wealth, goods”).[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record, from Lorenzo's material, is a document of 1422 with the spelling rrayal; the DDGM quotes the same document, ẽna rrayal corporal posyson dela “in the real bodily possession of it” and rrayal et esperital “real and spiritual”, though it files the passage under the royal word.[2][9] In this first record the word already has its legal sense of a possession that is actual and material.[9]

Semantic evolution

Folqman's dictionary of 1755 keeps the two words apart, giving the Latin regius for the royal real and realis for the one “that really exists”.[10] Its family grew in the modern period: Cunha dates realidade to the 16th century, realizar and realista to 1813 and realismo to 1874.[3]

Houaiss lists today the senses “concrete”, “truly existing”, “genuine”, the economic sense of a value corrected for inflation, as opposed to the nominal one, and the legal sense of what concerns goods rather than persons.[2] Informal Brazilian Portuguese also uses a real as a feminine noun for the plain truth of things, as in cair na real “to face reality”.[2][1]

Timeline

  • 1422 – first record, spelt rrayal, in a document cited by Lorenzo.[2][9]
  • 15th century – the plural reaes.[2]
  • 1755 – Folqman separates real “of the king” from real “that really exists”.[10]
  • 1813 – realizar and realista first recorded.[3]
  • 1874 – realismo first recorded.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Existing in fact, not imagined; real, true: Isto aconteceu na vida real.[2][5][1]
  2. Concrete, as opposed to supposed or hypothetical.[2]
  3. Not false or artificial; genuine.[2][11]
  4. (economics) Of a value or wage: adjusted for inflation, as opposed to nominal.[2][11]
  5. (law) Relating to property, movable or immovable, rather than to persons.[2][5][12]
  6. (mathematics) Of a number: belonging to the set of real numbers.[1]

Noun

  1. What actually exists; reality (realidade).[2][5]
  2. (mathematics) A real number.[1]
  3. (Brazil, informal; feminine) The plain truth, how things really are.[2][1]

Word family

  • realidade
  • realismo
  • realista
  • realizar
  • realização
  • realizável
  • realmente
  • irreal

real2 royal; currency unit

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria, spelt reyal
Inherited from
Latin regalis
Ultimate origin
Latin rēx
Etymology tree of real2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin rēx
French roi
Italian re
Portuguese rei
Spanish rey
English rex
Romanian rege
Latin rēgālis
French royal
Portuguese real
English regal
Italian regale
Spanish regalía
Portuguese regalia
From the same root · real2
French roitelet ← rēx
French vice-roi ← rēx
Latin rēgīna ← rēx
Latin rēgius ← rēx
Latin rēgnum ← rēx
Latin rēgulus ← rēx
Romanian regat ← rēx
Latin rēgālia ← rēgālis
French royauté ← royal
French ultra-royaliste ← royal

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ʁeˈaw/, [heˈaʊ̯][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ʁeˈaw/, [χeˈaʊ̯][1]
  • Portugal: /ʁiˈal/, [ʁiˈaɫ][1]
  • Portugal, Southern: /ʁiˈa.li/[1]

Forms

real m or f (plural reais)[1]

Etymology

The word for “royal” is inherited from Latin rēgālis (“of a king, royal”), written Old Galician-Portuguese real, Old Galician-Portuguese rayal and Old Galician-Portuguese reyal in the oldest texts.[2][3][9][1] The Latin adjective is formed on the stem of rēx (“king”) with the suffix -ālis.[1] The Latin noun for “king” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs (“ruler, king”), and is cognate with Old Irish rí.[8]

The same Latin word is Spanish real, Catalan reial, Occitan reial, French royal and Italian reale.[13][6]

As a noun the word named a coin struck by the king.[4][6] Machado, as Houaiss reports, derives the coin name from the adjective.[2] Cunha also lists the noun under it.[3] The Brazilian currency of 1994 took its name from the Unidade Real de Valor, a transitional unit of account.[1] Wiktionary notes that the name plays on the sense “actual” but also recalls the old coin, and that most dictionaries give the Latin royal adjective as its etymon.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1035 already has in uilla rial “in the royal estate”.[9][2] In Galician-Portuguese the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of a mõesteiro reyal “royal monastery”, and a document of 1289 of o senhorio Real “the royal lordship”, the king's right over a place.[9]

Semantic evolution

From the 14th century the word also named coins: Houaiss dates the coin to 1339, from the Elucidário, and a Galician document of 1375 records a payment en rayaes del Rey, each counted as three maravedis.[2][9] Viterbo describes gold, silver and copper reais, the white real being worth ten black ones.[14][15] Morais in 1813 traces the debasement of the copper and white reais and notes that by his time the real was only a unit of account, with the plural réis.[16] The real (plural réis) remained the base unit of Brazilian money, counted in thousands, and since July 1994 the name, with the plural reais, has belonged to the currency of Brazil.[2]

As an adjective it has meant “of the king” since the Middle Ages;[17] Bluteau in 1712 notes the further sense “great, the largest of its kind”, as in estrada real “highway” and veado real, a stag over ten years old.[17] Houaiss adds “worthy of a king, magnificent” and the use for the finest species of an animal, as in águia real.[2]

The same Latin adjective is also behind arraial, which Houaiss explains as the noun “king's camp” with a prefixed a-; the plain real was used in that sense in medieval chronicles.[9][18]

Timeline

  • 1035 – in uilla rial in a Latin charter.[9][2]
  • 13th century – mõesteiro reyal in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[9][3]
  • 1289 – o senhorio Real in a Portuguese document.[9]
  • 1339 – first record of the coin, in the form rayaaees.[2]
  • 1375 – payment en rayaes del Rey in a Galician document.[9]
  • 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has real as the name of a small coin.[19]
  • 1712 – Bluteau records real in the sense “great”, as in estrada real.[17]
  • 1813 – Morais describes the old coins and the real as a unit of account.[16]
  • 1994 – the real becomes the currency of Brazil.[2][1]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or belonging to a king or the royalty; royal, régio: a guarda real.[2][5][20]
  2. Proper to a king; issued by a king.[2][21]
  3. (figurative) Worthy of a king; magnificent.[2][12]
  4. Of an animal: of the finest or most imposing species: águia real.[2]

Noun

  1. The currency of Brazil since 1994, divided into 100 centavos (plural reais, symbol R$).[2][5][1]
  2. (historical) An old Portuguese and Brazilian monetary unit (plural réis).[2][5][16]
  3. (numismatics) Another name for the alfonsim, an old coin.[2]

Word family

  • realeza

Usage notes

Não ter um real means to be completely without money.[2][5]

Houaiss and Aurélio also record a third real, an old word for an arraial, a camp or hamlet, first recorded in 1344.[2][20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. real
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. real
  4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. real
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. real
  6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 435
  7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. real
  8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. real
  10. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. real
  11. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. real
  12. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. real
  13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7166
  14. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 267
  15. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 269
  16. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 557
  17. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. real
  18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. arraial
  19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. real
  20. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. real
  21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. real

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Real.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/real. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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