Centavo is a Spanish word derived from the LatinCentum meaning "hundred". Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...
It is a fractional monetary unit, used to represent one hundredth of a basic monetary unit in many countries around the world including:
In other countries, different terms such as cent, centime etc. are used for this fraction of the basic monetary unit. e.g. 1 Panamanian Balboa = 100 centavos; 1 United States Dollar = 100 cents; 1 Italian Lira = 100 centisimi; 1 French Franc = 100 centimes.