The Spanish cerca (“near”, as in the common phrase, cerca de) comes from the Latin circus, meaning ring. From that same root, we get the English… circus (which does have a circular ring as its defining feature!) as well as circle (in the same shape!). The c-r-c root is clearly visible in all!
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
Here at ForNerds, we love meeting and talking to other people who love learning Spanish, etymologies, and any other topic in nerdy ways. Drop us a note and say hi!
morgan@westegg.com
