Montevideo - Etymology

Etymology

There exist various explanations about the word Montevideo. All agree that "Monte" refers to the Cerro de Montevideo, the hill situated across the Bay of Montevideo, but there is disagreement about the etymological origin of the term "video".

• Monte Vidi – This hypothesis comes from the "Diario de Navegación" (Navigational Calendar) of boatswain Francisco de Albo, member of the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, who wrote, "Tuesday of the said (month of January 1520) we were on the straits of Cape Santa María (now Punta del Este), from where the coast runs East to West, and the terrain is sandy, and at the right of the cape there is a mountain like a hat to which we gave the name "Montevidi"." This is the oldest Spanish document which mentions the promontory with a name similar to the one that designates the city, but which doesn't contain any mention of the alleged cry "Monte vide eu".
• Monte vide eu ("I saw a mount") – is the most widespread belief, but is rejected by the majority of experts, who consider it unlikely because it involves a mix of different dialects. The name would come from a Portuguese expression which means "I saw a mount", wrongly pronounced by an anonymous sailor belonging to the expedition of Fernando de Magallanes on catching sight of the Cerro de Montevideo.
• "Monte-VI-D-E-O". (Monte VI De Este a Oeste) – according to Rolando Laguarda Trías, professor of History, the Spaniards annotated the geographic location on a map or Portolan chart, so that the mount/hill is the VI (6th) mount observable on the coast, navigating Río de la Plata from East to West. With the passing of time, these words were unified to "Montevideo". No conclusive evidence has been found to confirm this academic hypothesis, nor can it be asserted with certainty which were the other five mounts observable before the Cerro.
• Monte Ovidio (Monte Santo Ovidio), a less widespread hypothesis of a religious origin., stems from an interpolation in the aforementioned Diario de Navegación of Fernando de Albo, where it is asserted "corruptly now called Santo Vidio" when they refer to the hat-like mount which they named Monte Vidi (that is, the Cerro de Montevideo). Ovidio (Saint Ovidius) was the third bishop of the Portuguese city of Braga, where he was always revered; a monument to him was erected there in 1505. Given the relationship that the Portuguese had with the discovery and foundation of Montevideo, and despite the fact that this hypothesis, like the previous ones, lacks conclusive documentation, there have been those who linked the name of Santo Ovidio or Vidio (appearing on some maps of the time) with the subsequent derivation of the name "Montevideo" given to the region since the early years of the 16th century.