Cama, Spanish for “bed”, has many surprising cousins in English, including:
- Chamber — This French word made its way into English, meaning originally and still most commonly, “bedroom”. What is your bedroom if not the room with your bed? Chamber comes from the Latin, camera, meaning the same — from which we also get cama itself.
- Camera — From the Latin for the same, room. If we think about how a camera works: there is a little dark room where the film is exposed.
- Comrade — The communist word for “friend” came to Russian and the world via French, but came to French via the Spanish camarada, literally, “chamber mate” — the person you shared your room with. You and your comrades have a closer relationship than you thought!
In all these words, we can see a c(h)-m to c‑m mapping, so the relationships are clear!
