The Spanish ladrón, for thief, sounds unrelated to any English word.

But, it does have an interesting connection to the English for the same, Burglar.

Burglar comes from the Latin burgus, which meant “castle” or a “fortified town” — think about the -burg ending in many place names, like Pittsburgh or Edinborough.

But, if burglar comes from burgus, then where did the -l- in the middle come from?

Well, the -l- was inserted slowly over time under the influence of the Latin for thief, latro. The word for “thief” was, unconsciously, made to sound similar to the other word for thief! And from latro we get, directly, the Spanish ladrón.

Thus, although burglar isn’t directly descended from ladrón, they are incestuous cousins.

Empresa (Spanish for “business”) is from the Latin imprendere, which itself comes from the Latin im– (“on”) plus prehendere (“to grasp”).

From the same Latin root, we get the English (via Italian), impresario.

An impresario, after all, is just a flashy businessman! True Italian style.

From the original Latin prehendere, we also get the Spanish prender, “to attach, fasten” — almost the same as grasping!

We can see the -m-p-r root in both words.

The Spanish for “throat” garganta sounds completely unrelated to any similar word in English.

But it is actually a close cousin of both gargoyle and gargle.

All come from the Latin gula, meaning “throat”. You do gargle with your throat… and a gargoyle — although we associate it with the demon statues in churches — is, literally, a water spout. Yes, water used to spout out of the mouths of the gargoyles!

The Spanish for “honey,” miel, comes from the Latin mel — also meaning honey. We can see the m-l root obviously and simply in both!

(The –fluous ending comes from the Latin fluere, meaning “to flow” — and we can also see the f-l root there!)

So, mellifluous words are… flowing like honey.

The Spanish cerca (“near”, as in the common phrase, cerca de) comes from the Latin circus, meaning ring. From that same root, we get the English… circus (which does have a circular ring as its defining feature!) as well as circle (in the same shape!). The c-r-c root is clearly visible in all!