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- Feed Preview Initial F to H – Spanish Etymology, Learning Spanish
Rehusar – Refuse
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...
Humo and Fumes
If he is fuming, he is smoking — literally. And it is, subtly, the same word in Spanish. “To fume” comes from the Latin root fumus (“smoke”) from which we also get the common Spanish wo...
Estrella Fugaz and Fugitive
A “shooting star” in Spanish is an estrella fugaz. Since estrella means “star”, then fugaz is the parallel to “shooting.” Fugaz comes from the Latin fugere which means, “to run away...
Hervir and Fever
Hervir (Spanish for, “to boil”) comes from the Latin fervere (“to be hot, burn, boil”). The best part: from this same root, we also get the English… fever! Thus, this is another example...
Hoja and Foliage
The Initial F, followed by a vowel, disappears: So, “hoja“, meaning “leaf” (in all senses: the autumn trees, the piece of paper) is thus, from the same Latin root as “foliage“, the gr...
Hilo and File
The Spanish hilo (cord; thread; string) comes from the Latin for the same, filum. The words sound very different, until we remember that, words in Latin that began with an f- tended to change to ...
Hablar and Fable
The Spanish “hablar” (“to talk”) comes from the vulgar Latin “fabulari”, also meaning “to talk” – hence the English, “fable”. This gets very interesting very quickly, so not...
Hallar and Flatulence
The Spanish hallar (“to find”) comes from the Latin afflare (“to blow.”) From that same Latin root we get various f-l words involving blowing, including: Flatulence — A fart, after all,...
Hongo – Fungus
The Spanish hongo, for “mushroom,” doesn’t sound anything like its English counterpart “mushroom.” But it does come from the Latin fungus from which we get the English synonym for mushr...
Hacer and Fact
The English fact comes from the Latin factum, meaning “something that happened.” It is thus an exact cognate to the Spanish hacer, meaning “to make.” How? The root of both is the Latin fa...