Pie – Foot
The English foot comes from the Indo-European root *ped. Think pedal.
Interestingly, the “p” sound consistently transformed into an “f” in the Germanic languages — but remained a “p” in the Latinate languages.
This is why, foot is equivalent to pie.
Other examples of this pattern include father and padre, and the English far is from the same root as the Latin per.
Otoño and Autumn
Otoño doesn’t sound much like its English translation, fall (the season). But if we think of the less common synonym, Autumn, then the pattern becomes a bit clearer.
Both come from the Latin for the same, Autumnus. But Latin words with an m-n sound usually became an ñ sound in Spanish. Think of damn and daño, for example. So the a-t-m-n of autumn maps to the o-t-ñ of otoño!
Quejar and Quash, Squash
Quejar, Spanish for “to complain” doesn’t seem related to any English equivalent.
But upon closer look, it is a first cousin of both quash and squash.
How so?
All come from the Latin quassare, meaning, “to shatter.”
The relationship is easy to see if we remember that the Spanish -j- sound used to be the Latin -s- sound (and many variants, like -ss-, -si-, -sy-, -sh-, -ch-, etc.).
Thus, the qu-j for quejar maps to the qu-sh of quash and the sq-sh of squash.
Complaining, it seems, is a form of quashing (squashing?) your opponent!
Traer and Traction, Tractor
- Posted by Morgan
- on
- in True Spanish Etymology Stories
The Spanish traer, meaning “to bring,” comes from the Latin trahere, meaning “to drag.”
From the Latin root, we also get a few related English words that aren’t obvious at first glance:
- Tractor: What is a tractor if not a machine that brings or drags machinery around the plot of farmland?
- Traction: What is traction if not something moving so quickly that it drags everyone else up along with it?
Note that the -h- vanished when the Latin turned into Spanish but became a -ct- when the Latin became English. Thus the t-r-[nothing] of traer maps to the t-r-ct of the English words.
- See more of this pattern: True Spanish Etymology Stories
Vez and Vice-Versa
- Posted by Morgan
- on
- in True Spanish Etymology Stories
Vez (Spanish for “turn (in a line/queue)”, as in “next in line”) comes from the Latin for the same: vicis.
From this root vicis we get a few English words, including:
- Vice-Versa — versa (“against”), literally means, “it’s your turn against him!”
- Vicissitude — thought about this way, vicissitudes are really just people taking turns back and forth, right?
- Vice — as in “Vice President”. He whose turn is next!
- Vicarious — it’s someone else’s turn instead of yours!
- Vicar — he’s really just the guy whose turn it is to substitute for the real priest!
The v-c root is visible in all variations.
- See more of this pattern: True Spanish Etymology Stories
Plomo and Plumber
- Posted by Morgan
- on
- in True Spanish Etymology Stories
Plumber comes from the Latin plumbum, for “lead.” A plumber originally meant someone who works with (particularly smelts) lead. These men, over time, worked mostly with pipes (made of lead!) and eventually dealt more and more with the pipes that carry water into (or out of) homes and buildings. So lead workers became plumbers.
Interestingly, the Spanish for “lead” (plomo) comes from the same Latin root. We can see the pl-m root in words in both languages.
- See more of this pattern: True Spanish Etymology Stories
what is the etymological way to learn spanish?
Nerds love to pattern-match, to find commonalities among everything. Our approach to learning languages revolves (the same -volve- that is in “volver”, to “return”) around connecting the Spanish words to the related English words via their common etymologies – to find the linguistic patterns, because these patterns become easy triggers to remember what words mean. Want to know more? Email us and ask:
morgan@westegg.com
patterns to help us learn spanish:
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