Reírse and Ridiculous
- Posted by Morgan
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- in True Spanish Etymology Stories
Both the Spanish reírse (“to laugh”) and the English ridiculous come from the same Latin root: ridere (also “to laugh”).
Thus, the r-vowel-d-vowel of ridiculous maps to the r-vowel-disappeared-vowel of reírse. Note that the middle -d- disappeared in the Spanish version, probably as the word was shortened since the Spaniards spent so much time laughing, it became natural to say it shorter and quicker!
- See more of this pattern: True Spanish Etymology Stories
Hongo – Fungus
- Posted by Morgan
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- in Initial F to H, Patterns
The Spanish hongo, for “mushroom,” doesn’t sound anything like its English counterpart “mushroom.” But it does come from the Latin fungus from which we get the English synonym for mushroom… fungus.
The relation between hongo and fungus is easy to remember if we remember that, as Latin evolved into Spanish, the initial f- (followed by a vowel) usually transformed into an h-. Thus, the f-n-g for fungus maps exactly to the h-n-g of hongo.
- See more of this pattern: Initial F to H, Patterns
Hacer and Fact
- Posted by Morgan
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- in Initial F to H, Patterns
The English fact comes from the Latin factum, meaning “something that happened.” It is thus an exact cognate to the Spanish hacer, meaning “to make.” How?
The root of both is the Latin facere, meaning “to do.” Fact, and the Latin factum, is just the same word in a different tense.
The Latin facere turned into the Spanish hacer, although they superficially sound different. Their relation becomes obvious once we remember that Latin words that began with an initial f- almost always turned into h- when Latin evolved into Spanish.
Therefore, the f-c-r of facere maps exactly to the h-c-r of hacer.
This pattern explains many words such as hierro/ferrari, hervir/fever, huir/fugitive, hoja/foliage!
- See more of this pattern: Initial F to H, Patterns
Esposa – Spouse
- Posted by Morgan
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- in True Spanish Etymology Stories
Esposa and spouse both come from the same root, and both mean the same thing — that one was obvious!
However, it gets more interesting: both come from the Latin spondere, meaning, “to bind”.
From this root we also get the Spanish word esposas, which means (in addition to meaning just “wives”), also means… handcuffs.
Yes, in Spanish, “handcuff” and “wife” are the same word. It gets the point across clearly, doesn’t it?
- See more of this pattern: True Spanish Etymology Stories
Romper and Corrupt
- Posted by Morgan
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- in True Spanish Etymology Stories
The Spanish for “to break”, romper, has a curious English cousin: corruption.
Corrupt comes from the Latin root com- (which just intensifies the following phrase) plus the Latin rumpere, meaning “to break” – just like the almost-identical Spanish romper (unsurprisingly, since the Spanish is descended from the Latin).
The connection is obvious if we see the unchanged r-m-p root in both words.
That which is corrupt, after all, is — definitionally — just broken.
- See more of this pattern: True Spanish Etymology Stories
Gastar and Waste
Gastar (Spanish for “to spend”) has an interesting first cousin: waste.
Both come from Latin vastare (“to lay to waste”) which in turn comes from vastus (“empty.”)
The v- sound of vastare turned into a gu- sound as Latin turned into Spanish. But in English, this French word took on the more Germanic w- sound. Thus, although not directly descended from German, it does follow the common g-/w- pattern (guerra/war).
We can thus see the g-st map to the w-st clearly.
After all: spending money is wasting money!
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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