Learning Spanish & Etymology Pattern-Matching for Nerds

Abrir, Spanish for “to open,” comes from the Latin aperire, for the same.

Less obviously, from the same Latin root we get two similar words in English: overt and aperture. Both are openings — and overt is a very metaphorical opening although, etymologically, a literal one!

In overt, we can see the o‑v-r map to the a‑b-r of abrir, and in aperture the a‑p-r map to the a‑b-r of abrir.