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Learning Spanish & Etymology Pattern-Matching for Nerds

Cera and Sincere

The English sincere is from the Latin “sine cera” — literally, “without wax.”

From that same root is… the Spanish, cera, for “wax” (not to mention, the Spanish sin, also meaning, “without.”) The c-r root is easy to see in both words.

However, what does “wax” have to do with “sincerity”? Well, wax was used to make masks — and makes you hide your face, hide your emotions, hide your true self. Without wax, your face, your emotions, and your true self would be exposed to the world: you would become sincere.

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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For Nerds Learning Spanish via Etymologies