So, this is one of my personal all-time favorite etymologies. Just
sayin’. The Spanish for “heart,” corazón, and the English heart
itself, both come from the same original root. Huh? How? ...
Today’s link is another gem: despite sounding completely different,
“hundred” and ciento are actually the same word. Here’s how. The
ancient Proto-Indo-European root *kmtom meant a hundre...
The Spanish for “horn”, cuerno (and its variations, like the
ever-present cornudo), and the English horn are both originally the
same word in the ancient languages. Huh? One of the most inter...
The Spanish hembra, for “female” (usually in regard to animals)
sounds nothing like the English feminine. But it turns out that they
are etymologically identical. Both come from the Latin for...
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 ...
The Spanish for “shirt”, Camisa, is a distant cousin of the
English Heaven. How? Both come from the same common ancestor, the
Proto-Indo-European root *kem, meaning, “to cover.” This root...
The Indo-European root kaput, meaning “head”, led to words for the
head in almost every western language, with no change. The kaput
turned into the almost-identical caput in Latin; and then t...
The Spanish correr, “to run” seems completely unrelated to the
English horse. Looks can be deceiving. Correr comes from the Latin for
the same, currere. Currere, in turn, comes from the
Proto...
We’ve previously discussed cuerno (Spanish for horn) and its related
Spanish words–and here’s another: cornucopia, which literally
means… the “horn of plenty.” We see the h-r-n map to...
Today is time for what is perhaps my all-time favorite example of how
sound patterns change over time. Here we go, no more delays: The
Proto-Indo-European sound k- changed into the h- sound into ...
