2023-05-01 07:00:36
The ball will roll. On one side, Palmeiras. On the other, Água Santa. Record TV broadcast the final of the Paulista Championship, which would be won by the Greatest Champion in Brazil.
However, before the match starts, the referee calls the captains of the two teams to each choose the side that will play or choose to kick off. So the judge asks, holding up a coin, “Heads or tails?”
Although known, many Brazilians do not know where this expression comes from. This is understandable, as Brazilian real coins do not feature any crowns. In turn, they even have the face of the effigy of the Republic on one side.
The origin of “heads or tails” came out of Ancient Rome (753 BC to 476 AD). In fact, the expression was “ship or face”.
That’s because, on one side of the coin, there were drawings of embarrassments, in honor of the god Jano. He would be the inventor of boats, in Roman belief at the time. On the other side, there was precisely the face of the mythological being.
As the game spread around the world, it was named after each nation’s culture and currency. In the UK, for example, it’s called “heads or tails”. In Mexico, “eagle or sun”
In Brazil, the “heads or tails” appeared in the colonial period, when the country was still subordinate to Portugal. Between 1695 and 1834, Brazilian money was called ‘patacas’.
In this context, the form of payment gained, in 1727, a remodeling that aimed to honor the Portuguese royal family. On one side of the coin, the figure of the king of Portugal at the time, D.João V. On the other, the coat of arms of the Crown.
Thus, the expression “heads or tails” emerged, which still resists the Brazilian vocabulary after so long and should continue to do so.
*Intern of R7under the supervision of Ana Vinhas.
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