Learning Spanish & Etymology Pattern-Matching for Nerds » True Spanish Etymology Stories

Costilla, Spanish for “rib,” is a close cousin of the English coast and accost. All come from the same Latin root, costa, meaning, “side.” Thus, your rib is literally, “what which is on...

https://spanishetymology.com/costilla-and-coast-accost/

Today’s is a good one! The Spanish caro (simply, “expensive”) has a fun provenance: from the ancient (pre-Latin) Proto-Indo-European root karo– that meant… whore. Yes, the ancient word ...

https://spanishetymology.com/caro-and-whore-cher/

Turbio, Spanish for “cloudy”, comes from the same Latin root as the English disturb: turbidus, meaning, “turmoil; full of confusion; muddy.” It is easy to see how this one root evolved in...

https://spanishetymology.com/turbio-and-disturb/

The Spanish cobrar (“to charge”; in the sense of, to charge a fee or collect a payment) comes from the older Spanish recobrar (meaning, “to recuperate”) — which itself comes from the La...

https://spanishetymology.com/cobrar-and-recuperate/

The Spanish eje for “axle” comes from the Latin for the same, axis. The English axle comes from the same common ancestor as the Latin axis, the proto-indo-european root *aks– also meaning t...

https://spanishetymology.com/eje-and-axle/

The Spanish carne (“meat”) is surprisingly related to… carnival. The original carnival — the wild annual February parties in the Roman Catholic countries — were, after all, a meat marke...

https://spanishetymology.com/carne-carnival/

Today’s pattern is another entry in the “obvious in hindsight” category. Presupuesto is the common Spanish word for “budget.” Sounds arbitrary and hard to remember. But it turns out, th...

https://spanishetymology.com/presupuesto-and-presuppose/

Today’s etymology is simple and to the point — and, for me at least, was completely unexpected: Amigo (Spanish for “friend”), comes from the Latin amare, “to love,” a common word we s...

https://spanishetymology.com/amigo-and-friend/

The Spanish rehusar — literally, “refuse” — sounds odd to English ears: it’s the same word, but the -f- became an -h-. Huh? This is explained via the pattern of Latin words that began w...

https://spanishetymology.com/refuse-rehusar/

The Spanish arena means “sand” or “dirt” while the English arena means, well, arena (something similar to a stadium). Nothing to do with sand! Or so it seems… Interestingly, both come f...

https://spanishetymology.com/arena-dirt-and-stadium/