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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...