The story
- Portuguese · derived frommonte“hill”
- English todayMontevideo
There is general agreement that the first two syllables come from Spanish or Portuguese monte (“hill”), in reference to the prominent hill to the west of the city. Beyond that, explanations differ. Two of the most popular stories are that the name comes from a reading of the abbreviated MONTE-VI-D-E-O ("sixth hill from east to west"), or that it comes from a Portuguese sailor's shout of "Monte vide eu".
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.