The Spanish for “deaf,” sordo, comes from the Latin for the same: sordus.

From that same root is the English… absurd.

How did this abs… umm, ridiculous etymology come about? Well, with the ab– prefix (Latin for “off” or “away from”), it meant, “that which is unheard of.” Think of it as a metaphorical version of being deaf: so absurd, you have never heard about that happening in reality!

This, this is self-referential: it is an absurd etymology!

The Spanish for “poster”, afiche, comes from the Latin figere, meaning, “to fasten”. From that same root, we get the English affix — and we can see that clearly, as the a-f-ch of afiche maps clearly to the a-f-x of affix.

More distantly, from the original Latin root figere, we get the English… fix. You can see the Latin root f-g map to the English f-x as well!

The Spanish traer, meaning “to bring,” comes from the Latin trahere, meaning “to drag.”

From the Latin root, we also get a few related English words that aren’t obvious at first glance:

• Tractor: What is a tractor if not a machine that brings or drags machinery around the plot of farmland?
• Traction: What is traction if not something moving so quickly that it drags everyone else up along with it?

Note that the -h- vanished when the Latin turned into Spanish but became a -ct- when the Latin became English. Thus the t-r-[nothing] of traer maps to the t-r-ct of the English words.

Vez (Spanish for “turn (in a line/queue)”, as in “next in line”) comes from the Latin for the same: vicis.

From this root vicis we get a few English words, including:

• Vice-Versa — versa (“against”), literally means, “it’s your turn against him!”
• Vicissitude — thought about this way, vicissitudes are really just people taking turns back and forth, right?
• Vice — as in “Vice President”. He whose turn is next!
• Vicarious — it’s someone else’s turn instead of yours!
• Vicar — he’s really just the guy whose turn it is to substitute for the real priest!

The v-c root is visible in all variations.

Plumber comes from the Latin plumbum, for “lead.” A plumber originally meant someone who works with (particularly smelts) lead. These men, over time, worked mostly with pipes (made of lead!) and eventually dealt more and more with the pipes that carry water into (or out of) homes and buildings. So lead workers became plumbers.

Interestingly, the Spanish for “lead” (plomo) comes from the same Latin root. We can see the pl-m root in words in both languages.

Padecer (Spanish for “to suffer”) comes from the Latin pati, meaning, “to suffer.” From that same root, we get the English… passion.

Yes, by definition, passion necessarily entails suffering.  Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know about love?

The Spanish cara (“head”) comes from the same Latin word (cara), also meaning the same, “head.”

From that Latin, we get the English cheer (via French’s chere). Thus, the ch-r of cheer maps to the c-r of cara.

A face — after all — is the most human thing intended to make us thankful (to cheers a toast!) for life. And most faces fill us with enough happiness to make us cheerful!

Suelo is Spanish for “floor” although it is not too common (piso is the more common word). But, very common is subsuelo — the sub-floor, that is: the basement.

This is, unexpectedly, related to a few English words.

Suelo comes from the Latin solum, meaning “ground.”

From solum, we get two English words:

First, soil — yes, the soil is what is on the ground below you!

Second, sole — as in the sole of your shoe. This, too, is below you as you walk.

In all, we clearly see the s-l root staying consistent.

Gremio (Spanish for “union,”, in the sense of workers, unite!; formerly “guild”–which is really just an old-school union!) comes from the Latin Gremium, meaning “round.” How did this transformation happen? Well, a round pen was where you held onto things; it turned into the word for where people got together, which turned into guild (a common reason people got together!) and then, eventually, to mean union.

However, it gets much more interesting. The Latin gremium comes from the proto-indo-european root *ger– meaning…. to get together! From this root, we also get (via Greek) words like congregate (to bring people together) and segregate (to bring people apart!).

Thus, gremio took an interesting turn over the last few thousand years: from the meaning congregate to round to congregate again!

We can see the g-r root clearly in gremio as well as congregate and segregate.

The English recruit and the Spanish crecer (“to grow”) seem like they have nothing to do with each other. But looks can be deceiving!

“Recruit” comes from, via French, the roots re- (“again”) and the Latin crescere, meaning “to grow” — from which we get the Spanish for the same.

Therefore, a recruit is literally a “new growth” — it is how the next generation is reborn!

Interestingly, we also get, from the same root, the English crescent as well.