Empresa (Spanish for “business”) is from the Latin imprendere, which itself comes from the Latin im– (“on”) plus prehendere (“to grasp”).
From the same Latin root, we get the English (via Italian), impresario.
An impresario, after all, is just a flashy businessman! True Italian style.
From the original Latin prehendere, we also get the Spanish prender, “to attach, fasten” — almost the same as grasping!
We can see the -m-p-r root in both words.
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
