# Flipping a Coin: Heads & Tails, in Other Languages **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2011, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829 "2011-12-02T12:58:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/21 "2011-12-02T18:06:57Z")
Follow-up: a quick Googling gave me [this](http://www.drberlin.com/palestine/1mil.htm). ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/22 "2011-12-02T18:15:27Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That said, “tails” sounds like one logical opposite of “head” to me, so it being used for the backside of a coin doesn’t sound odd to me at all. But you don’t know if the coins used at that time showed any tails? I’m afraid I can’t see the logic in calling a backside tails. Humans don’t have tails, they have a butt, so it would either be “head or butt” or “Head or feet” if you want logically. Usually it seems to be what’s on the other side of the coin, though - “Heads or number” or “Head or [whatever]”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/23 "2011-12-02T18:27:37Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > But you don’t know if the coins used at that time showed any tails? > > I’m afraid I can’t see the logic in calling a backside tails. Humans don’t have tails, they have a butt, so it would either be “head or butt” or “Head or feet” if you want logically. Usually it seems to be what’s on the other side of the coin, though - “Heads or number” or “Head or [whatever]”. _shrug_ To me, it doesn’t seem odd at all. “Tail” is, indeed, used for “butt” in English sometimes. “Tail” as an opposite to “head” is common in English. The “head” of a line vs the “tail” of a line. A passage from Deuteronomy 28:13 “And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath.” " I had never actually thought of “head” and “tail” as literally meaning a head and tail, but rather meaning “front” and “back.” Besides, the more interesting question for me is why is it always in the plural? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/24 "2011-12-02T18:40:38Z")
Ffynes-Clinton’s Welsh Vocabulary of the Bangor District gives “cing ta brits.” _Cing_ is the English word “king” (the Welsh for “king” is _brenin_ and he defines _brits_ as “‘the figure of Britannia on the reverse side of copper coins’; only used in phrases connected with tossing coins” but since it is pronounced _bridge_ I wonder if it’s “king or bridge” — anyone know if there was a British coin with a bridge on the back in the Victorian era? I know there was a Britannia, but that seems far-fetched. Otherwise, it seems to be “tu blaen neu tu chwith,” literally “front side or back side.” _Chwith_ is “left” and by extension both “back” and “wrong, strange” (cf. _sinister_). ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/25 "2011-12-02T20:13:22Z")
> [@PacifistPorcupine](#): > > It probably relates more to the local currency than the language. And maybe not even the current local currency. When I was growing up in Mexico, it was _Eagle or Sun_. All Mexican coins had an eagle on one side, but I don’t recall any that had a Sun on the other. It has a Mayan calendar shaped like the Sun on the reverse side. There’s a Cantinflas movie called [Águila o sol](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029821/) (1938, one of his earliest films), so I guess it’s a fairly common expression. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/26 "2011-12-03T10:03:24Z")
> [@willthekittensurvive](#): > > In dutch its “Kop of Munt” translate into heads or coin In Norwegian it’s kron eller mynt, i.e. crown or mint. The defining part being mint, the side the value is marked on. But some people don’t know this and use the expression wrong when the coin has a crown or crowns on the same side as the value. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/27 "2011-12-03T15:33:00Z")
In Japanese it’s _omete_ (front) or _ura_ back. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/28 "2011-12-05T06:17:28Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > But you don’t know if the coins used at that time showed any tails? > > I’m afraid I can’t see the logic in calling a backside tails. Humans don’t have tails, they have a butt, so it would either be “head or butt” or “Head or feet” if you want logically. Usually it seems to be what’s on the other side of the coin, though - “Heads or number” or “Head or [whatever]”. People don’t have heads at one end and tails at the other, but lots of common farmyard and domestic animals do. Coins don’t represent people but they do represent property, and farm animals were an important form of property, so it makes more sense to personify a coin as an animal than as, well, a person. The monarch’s head on one side of a British coin is a pretty ancient and unvarying practice. The other side, however, could have a variety of designs and inscriptions; there was little or no commonality about what these might be. Hence it was easier to specify the obverse of a coin as “not the head” or “opposite the head” than by reference to what was on it, and “tails” worked for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/29 "2011-12-05T06:51:03Z")
There is a fair amount of variation in Latin American countries, besides the “aguila o sol,” which is unique to Mexico. The generic one is “cara o cruz” (face or cross). Heads is always face, but [Wikipedia](http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cara_o_cruz) lists a bunch of variations for the tails: escudo (coat of arms), corona (crown), sello (seal), numero, letra (words), ceca (mint). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/30 "2011-12-05T08:48:22Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > People don’t have heads at one end and tails at the other, but lots of common farmyard and domestic animals do. Coins don’t represent people but they do represent property, and farm animals were an important form of property, so it makes more sense to personify a coin as an animal than as, well, a person. Tail, as a general antonym for ‘head’ is faily general though - ‘top to tail’ is a less common variant of “top to toe”, likewise “head over tail” and “head over heels” - ‘tail’, as well as meaing tail, also just means the trailing end of something, or the opposite end from the head. In a modern context, there is a pair of \*nix commands called _head_ and _tail_, which return the first or last few lines respectively, of a file. In the context of coinage, some British coins do/did have tails on the reverse side, for example: The modern decimal [10p piece](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_pence_%28British_coin%29) has lions on it (each coin in the set has a segment of the Royal Shield - the 10p has the top left part, and shows a pair of lions _passant_). Previous versions all the way back to decimal day had a single lion. Sovreigns and Silver Crowns had a horse and rider (the horse with conspicuous tail) Half Crowns had a depiction of the Royal Shield, with a total of 7 lions on it. Shillings had a lion, Some Farthings (albeit later ones) had a wren Guineas had several different shields or crests, all with lions, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/31 "2011-12-05T13:02:53Z")
It’s not a question of language – as many of the above replies illustrate, it often depends upon what’s on the coin, or local slang. So the reply in Mexico might be different from that in Spain, from that in some country in South America. In one of C.S. Foresyer’s Hornblower novels, set in the British navy in the Napoleonic era, one officer asks another to call “Ace or Spade” before flipping a coin. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/32 "2011-12-05T18:52:50Z")
Well, the answer for Spain is the same one **Erdosain** mentions as the generic one: _cara o cruz_. While there are dialectal variations, I don’t think it’s any more wrong to say that “in English, it’s ‘head or tails’; in Spanish, it’s ‘cara o cruz’” than it is to say “in English it’s ‘thank you’, in Spanish it’s ‘gracias’”. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/33 "2011-12-05T19:35:56Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > But you don’t know if the coins used at that time showed any tails? > > I’m afraid I can’t see the logic in calling a backside tails. Humans don’t have tails, they have a butt, so it would either be “head or butt” or “Head or feet” if you want logically. Usually it seems to be what’s on the other side of the coin, though - “Heads or number” or “Head or [whatever]”. If we insist that humans do not have tails and the rear end of a human can’t be called a tail, then the expression “[chasing tail](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chasing%20tail)” has frightening new meanings. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/34 "2011-12-05T20:24:55Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > It’s “Kopf oder Zahl” (Head or Number) in German. The German word Schwanz means both tail of an animal or slang for penis, so you might want to avoid using wrong translations like Google Schvantz I win Stucke you win. Voof. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/35 "2011-12-05T21:25:36Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > The German word Schwanz means both tail of an animal or slang for penis, so you might want to avoid using wrong translations like Google. > [@constanze](#): > > I’m afraid I can’t see the logic in calling a backside tails. Humans don’t have tails, they have a butt, so it would either be “head or butt” or “Head or feet” if you want logically. Usually it seems to be what’s on the other side of the coin, though - “Heads or number” or “Head or [whatever]”. Yes, because language and expressions have to be logical, the way calling the part of the body where we have a tail bone the tail isn’t, and calling the floppy part opposite the butt a Schwanz is. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/36 "2011-12-05T21:34:05Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Yes, because language and expressions have to be logical, the way calling the part of the body where we have a tail bone the tail isn’t, and calling the floppy part opposite the butt a Schwanz is. I know that languages aren’t logical. I just had a problem with it being presented as “Completly logical of course”. If tails as opposite to head even for humans has indeed a long history in the English language, but other examples have fallen out of use, that’s an explanation that makes more sense to me. And calling the penis a Schwanz= tail: well you can waggle it much better than the vestigial tailbone humans have. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829/37 "2011-12-05T21:54:19Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > I know that languages aren’t logical. I just had a problem with it being presented as “Completly logical of course”. “One logical opposite” is how I personally phrased it, and it is, indeed, a logical opposite of “head” in English, not just in literal usage, but in figurative usage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flipping-a-coin-heads-tails-in-other-languages/604829.md?page=1)