The Spanish huso (“spindle” — what Cinderella uses to weave!)
comes from the Latin for the same: fusus. The transition is clear when
we remember that the initial F in Latin usually turned i...
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? ...
One of our favorite patterns of sound change between English and
Spanish is the sh/j shift: under the influence of arabic, many words
that had a “s” or “sh” or “sy” or “ch” sound ...
Mostrar (Spanish for “to show”) comes from the Latin root,
monstrare (“to point out”), which comes from monstrum, an “omen
from God; a wonder.” From that root monstrum, we get two rel...
The Spanish meterse (“to get involved with”) comes from the Latin
mittere (“to let go.”) They sound like they might be opposites,
but they’re broadly aligned: it’s all about going som...
The common Spanish word dar (“to give”) comes from the Latin for
the same, dare. From the Latin root, we get the English… mandate
(“to give with your hand” – thus related to mano as w...
The common Spanish word aprender (“to learn”) comes from the
similar Latin, apprehendere for the same. From the same Latin root, we
get a variety of related English words, most notably, appre...
The Spanish llamar (to name; commonly used to say “My name is”:
“Me llamo” is literally, “I call myself…”) comes from the
Latin clamare, meaning “to cry out, shout, proclaim.” T...
Lighthouse in Spanish is Faro. Seems totally random, doesn’t it?
Well… The greatest and most famous lighthouse in history was, of
course one of the 7 Wonders of the World, the infamous Lighth...
The Spanish for “chest”, pecho, sounds completely different than
the English chest. But it is related to the English word for the chest
bones: the Pectoral Girdle. The relationship is the Lat...
