The Spanish for “a hit”, Golpe, comes from the Greek for the same, Colaphus. We can see the transition in the g‑l-p of golpe mapping to the c‑l-ph of colaphus.
The more interesting part, however, is that, from the same root we also get the French, and English, word coup — as in, a coup d’état. Coup is just colaphus, but with the middle ‑l- sound disappearing in French.
So, a coup d’état is just a big hit against the state!
