Learning Spanish & Etymology Pattern-Matching for Nerds

Vez and Vice-Versa

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-Versaversa (“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.

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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