Spanish Vocabulary
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David Brodsky
SPANISH
Vocabulary
An Etymological Approach
University of Texas Press
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Austin
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brodsky, David.
Spanish vocabulary : an etymological approach / by David Brodsky. — st ed.
p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN ---- (cl. : alk. paper) — ISBN ---- (pbk. :
alk. paper)
. Spanish language—Vocabulary. . Spanish language—Textbooks for
foreign speakers—English. . Spanish language—Etymology. I. Title.
PC.B 
.'—dc

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Contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations and Symbols
ix
Simplified Gender Rule xii
Introduction 
PA R T I . B A C K G R O U N D
.. Spanish as a Romance Language 
.. “Learned” versus “Popular” Words 
.. Latin: A Few Useful Tools 
PA R T I I . C L A S S I C A L V O C A B U L A R Y
.. “Learned” Latin Words 
.. “Learned” Greek Words 
PA R T I I I . P O P U L A R V O C A B U L A R Y: T H E S H A P E O F S PA N I S H
.. Addition of “Helping” e : esnob snob 
.. Initial f S h: higo fig

.. Vowel Changes: e S ie, o S ue, etc. 
.. Basic Consonant Changes: p/b, t/d, c/g 
.. Other Distinctive Consonants (or Lack Thereof)

PA R T I V. S E L E C T E D T O P I C S
.. Goths and Other Germans
.. Arabs and Muslims


.. Numbers and Quantities 
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vi
CO N T E N T S
.. Time

.. Ser and Estar 
.. Food and Animals
.. Religion


.. The Family

.. Body, Spirit, and Mind 
.. Romance (Languages) and Politics

ANNEXES. ADDITIONAL WORDS
A. Principal Exceptions to the “Simplified
Gender Rule” 
B.  Not-So-Easy Words 
C. Verbs Ending in -cer and Related Words
D. , Relatively Easy Words


Selected References 
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Preface
This book is intended for students at all levels who seek to enhance their
Spanish vocabulary, as well as for those who wish simply to explore the wideranging connections between Spanish and English vocabulary. The approach
differs markedly from that of “traditional” Spanish vocabulary books that
present lists of words with English definitions, grouped by subject areas. While
such lists can be useful for reviewing and maintaining vocabulary, they often
are of far less value to students seeking to acquire new vocabulary, or at least to
those not blessed with photographic memories.
Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach offers elements rarely found
in a work addressed to a nonspecialist audience, including:
. etymological connections between Spanish and English vocabulary
. historical and linguistic information on the origin and evolution of
Spanish
. comparative references to developments in other Romance languages
(and English)
A multifaceted approach is employed, ranging from presenting words in a historical context to developing an understanding of the “shape” or “feel” of Spanish. While extensive use of lists is also made, there is a crucial difference: in the
large majority of cases, Spanish words are associated explicitly with related
English words, an association that can greatly facilitate learning and retaining
these words. As an example, the correspondence amable (Spanish)—amiable
(English) can be used as the basis for learning a number of other Spanish words:
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Spanish
Definition
[Other Cognate]
amable
—amabilidad
—amistad
—amistoso
—amor
—amoroso
—amar
—amante
—enamorar
amiable, kind
—amiability, kindness
—friendship, amity
—friendly, amicable
—love
—amorous, loving
—(to) love
—loving, lover
—(to) enamor
[paramour]
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viii
P R E FA C E
—enamorado,
enamorada
—in love, enamored, lover, inamorato,
inamorata
The presentation is divided into four parts, plus four annexes. The book can
be studied sequentially or “à la carte” (Spanish a la carta). It is in fact recommended that one move back and forth between the sections to provide a greater
element of variety.
Part I provides general background material on the origins of Spanish and
begins the process of presenting Spanish vocabulary. Part II presents “classical” Spanish vocabulary, that is, words whose form (in both Spanish and English) is nearly unchanged from Latin and Greek. Part III deals with “popular” Spanish vocabulary, or words that during the evolution from Latin to
Spanish underwent significant change in form (and often in meaning as well).
A number of “patterns” are set out that can help one to recognize and remember
new vocabulary. Part IV treats in a more discursive manner various themes,
including Germanic and Arabic words, numbers, time, food and animals, the
family, the body, and politics.
The annexes present additional words in list form:
Annex A: Principal Exceptions to the “Simplified Gender Rule”
Annex B:  Not-So-Easy Words (whose relations, if any, to English words
are not immediately obvious)
Annex C: Verbs Ending in -cer and Related Words
Annex D: , Relatively Easy Words (with English correspondences)
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Abbreviations and Symbols
acc.
adj.
adv.
AHCD
Amer.
Arab.
arch.
astron.
biol.
bot.
cap.
Cat.
cf.
chem.
CL
conj.
def.
dim.
DRAE
eccl.
elec.
Eng.
esp.
fam.
f.
fig.
Fr.
freq.
gen.
genit.
geog.
geol.
geom.
Germ.
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accusative
adjective
adverb
American Heritage College Dictionary
American Spanish (not necessarily all countries);
or indigenous language
Arabic
architecture
astronomy
biology/zoology
botany
capitalized
Catalan
compare (from Latin confer)
chemistry
Classical Latin
conjunction
definition
diminutive
Diccionario de la lengua española of the Real Academia Española
ecclesiastical
electricity
English
especially
familiar, colloquial
feminine
figuratively; figurative
French
frequently
generally
genitive (possessive case)
geography
geology
geometry
Germanic
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x
A B B R E V I AT I O N S A N D S Y M B O L S
gram.
Gk.
incl.
inf.
It.
Lat.
lit.
m.
m./f.
math.
med.
mil.
Mod.Fr.
Mod.Sp.
n.
neg.
n.f.
n.m.
n.m./f.
nom.
obs.
OED
OldEng.
OldFr.
OldSp.
onom.
orig.
part.
pert.
pl.
Port.
p.p.
prep.
pres.
RAE
sing.
s.o.
Sp.
grammar
Greek
including
infinitive
Italian
Latin
literally
masculine
masculine/feminine
mathematics
medicine
military
Modern French
Modern Spanish
noun
negative
feminine noun
masculine noun
noun both masculine and feminine
nominative
obsolete or archaic
Oxford English Dictionary
Old English
Old French
Old Spanish
onomatopoeia
originally
participle
pertaining
plural
Portuguese
past participle 
preposition
present
Real Academia Española (see also DRAE)
singular
someone
Spanish

Used generally in cases where the defi nition corresponding to the past participle is not presented among the accompanying list of defi nitions.
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A B B R E V I AT I O N S A N D S Y M B O L S
UK
vb.
VL
w/out
United Kingdom
verb
Vulgar Latin
without
†
is similar in meaning to (always refers to two Spanish words)
is derived from (e.g., soprano It., sport < disport)
is equal to
is not equal to
indicates that an English word used as a cognate is “obsolete” or
“archaic” 
xi

In general, this applies to words that either: (a) are listed as “obsolete” or “archaic” in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged or (b) are not found there but appear in the
Oxford English Dictionary. The term rare is used to mark other cognates that, while perhaps not
technically obsolete or archaic, are not normally found in “smaller” dictionaries (e.g., American
Heritage College Dictionary).
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Simplified Gender Rule
Both to streamline the presentation and to serve as a learning tool, the text will
employ the following “Simplified Gender Rule” that “predicts” the correct gender for more than  percent of all Spanish nouns.
. Nouns having one of the following endings are assumed to be feminine:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
-a
-ión
-d
-umbre
-ie
-ez
-triz
-sis / -tis (Greek words)
. Nouns ending in -ista are assumed to be both masculine and feminine.
. All other nouns are assumed to be masculine.
ONLY NOUNS WHOSE GENDER IS “UNPREDICTABLE” WILL BE
EXPLICITLY MARKED.
Thus:
rosa
tema (m.)
libro
mano (f.)
nación
avión (m.)
corazón
razón (f.)
periodista
evangelista (m.)
rose
theme
book
hand
nation
airplane
heart
reason
journalist
Evangelist (author of one of the four NT gospels)
Annex A examines in more detail the accuracy of this “rule” and lists some
of the principal exceptions.
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SIMPLIFIED GENDER RULE
xiii
In general, Spanish is quite flexible in forming feminine nouns from masculine ones by:
(a) changing the final -o to -a
(b) adding -a to a noun or adjective ending in -or, -án, -ín, -ón
(c) adding -a to a national or regional identifier ending in a consonant
For (b) and (c), the final-syllable written accent, if any, disappears in the
feminine.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Masculine
Feminine
English
gato
chico
director
holgazán
bailarín
ladrón
español
francés
gata
chica
directora
holgazana
bailarina
ladrona
española
francesa
cat
boy, girl
director
lazy, loafer
dancing, dancer
thieving, thief
Spanish, Spaniard
French, Frenchman /Frenchwoman
To simplify the presentation, masculine forms only will generally be shown
for nouns and adjectives that follow these patterns, except in cases where there
is a change in written accent, or where English has a distinct female form.
Examples:
ladrón (-ona)
ciervo, cierva
thieving, thief or larcenist
deer, stag, doe
For “people” nouns not having one of the above endings, the masculine and
feminine forms are generally identical. This will frequently be highlighted by
using the abbreviation m./f. Thus:
atleta (m./f.)
cómplice (m./f.)
estudiante (m./f.)
athlete
accomplis
student
Finally, there are a very small number of “object” nouns that can be either
masculine or feminine, with no change in meaning. These will also be marked
with m./f. For example:
maratón (m./f.)
tizne (m./f.)
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marathon
soot
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Spanish Vocabulary
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Introduction
An English speaker learning Spanish starts with one huge, though generally
underutilized, advantage: he or she is already speaking a Romance language,
and with a little bit of help, can easily recognize and learn to use a very large
number of Spanish words. The “romance” of English may come as a surprise to
those who have been taught that English is a Germanic language. Nonetheless,
in terms of its vocabulary, English is overwhelmingly Latinate; in the Shorter
Oxford Dictionary, for example, there are more than twice as many LatinRomance words as Germanic ones.
Of course, one does not learn words in a foreign language simply by noting
their similarities with English words; rather, the basic familiarity that exists
(or that with a little practice can be seen to exist) can help one to remember
new words and to recognize them the next time they are encountered and,
after a while, to be able to begin using them naturally (in both speaking and
writing).
Consider the following seven words:
Spanish
English
hecho
dicho
pecho
estrecho
derecho
techo
leche
fact
saying, proverb
chest
narrow
right, straight
roof
milk
If you haven’t studied much Spanish already, chances are that the Spanish
words are not instantly recognizable. What you would normally do is look
them up in the dictionary and, probably, not remember their definitions (certainly not all of them) the next time you see them. This is the list (or “telephone
book”) approach to learning vocabulary.

In terms of frequency of usage, Germanic words dominate; in terms of simple word numbers,
Latin and Romance ones do. The issue of English as a “Germanic” versus “Romance” language
will be revisited in Section ..
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
INTRODUCTION
There is an alternative approach:
Spanish
Latin
Similar English Word
hecho
dicho
pecho
estrecho
derecho
techo
leche
factum
dictum
pectus
strictus
directus
tectum
lactem
fact
dictum, edict
pectoral
strict
direct, rectum
(pro)tect
lactose
where the middle column represents the common Latin origin of the corresponding Spanish and English words. Several points can immediately be noted:
(a) in each case, Spanish has changed Latin CT to ch;
(b) in several cases, the vowel has changed;
(c) the final Latin UM or US has become Spanish o, while the final EM in LACTEM
has become e;
(d) an initial e has been added to estrecho;
(e) the F in FACTUM has been converted into a silent h in Spanish.
Each of these characteristics is in fact a very frequent occurrence in Spanish, as
we will see in Part III.
We note also that the English equivalents of the Latin roots do not always
have the identical meaning of the corresponding Spanish word, but in all cases
they are at least suggestive and, more importantly, easy to remember. We may
not know too much about lactose, but most of us know that it is in milk and that
some people have problems digesting it (hence lactose-free milk in the supermarkets). Similarly, “narrow” and “strict” are not perfect synonyms, but they
do have overlapping meanings, since a “strict interpretation” is a “narrow” one.
And how about derecho, and what is its possible connection with rectum?
Latin directus meant “in a straight line”, hence “direct”, and is the origin of
Spanish derecho meaning “right”, both in terms of direction (“directly ahead”,
“the right-hand one”) and “law”. rectus, “straight”, leads to rectum intestinum, the “straight intestine”, shortened in English and Spanish to rectum and
recto, respectively.
Finally, techo is easily remembered because it (pro)tects us from the elements.

The same lac(t)- appears in galactic and galaxy (from Greek), the inspiration for the Milky
Way (a translation of Latin via lactea).
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INTRODUCTION

Apart from being an effective learning tool, this alternative to the “telephone book” approach can help convert vocabulary learning from an essentially painful process with no immediate reward to an enjoyable one with both
immediate and longer-term benefits:
(a) It provides valuable insights into the history of both the Spanish language
and the Spanish-speaking peoples.
(b) It provides an opportunity to deepen one’s understanding of English
(e.g., how many people are aware that the English word check comes—
via Persian, Arabic, Spanish, and French—from the Shah of Iran?).
(c) It enables one to enlarge one’s English vocabulary. For example, all of the
following words (some rather obscure) found in the American Heritage
College Dictionary are closely related—and, in a number of cases, identical
in form—to reasonably common Spanish words:
acequia
acicula
alcalde
bodega
burnoose
cespitose
cicatrix
comestible
consuetudinary
cuirass
estival
finca
fovea
frijol
grisaille
horologe
lanose
paries, parietal
manus
matutinal
muliebrity
non obstante
playa
seta
stupefacient
supervene
(d) It will make learning a second Romance language (French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan ) far easier; conversely, any preexisting knowledge of one
of these languages can immediately be applied to the learning of Spanish.
Returning to our example above, let us consider in more detail
STRICTUS
S
estrecho

Or Romanian, Rhaeto-Romance (one of Switzerland’s four national languages), Occitan
(also known as Provençal), Galician (northwest Spain), or Sardinian.
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
INTRODUCTION
to illustrate how, with a little effort, learning one word can be the key to learning a large number of others. strictus is the past participle of the Latin verb
stringere (“to bind tightly”, “to tighten”), which gave rise (via Old French) to
English strain, restrain, constrain, as well as to the more “classical” forms strict,
restrict, constrict, restriction, etc.
A similar process occurred in Spanish, giving these correspondences:
Spanish
English
restringir
restricción
restrictivo
(to) restrict, (to) restrain
restriction
restrictive
constreñir
constricción
constreñimiento
constrictivo
constrictor
(to) constrain, (to) constrict
constriction
constraint, constriction
constrictive
constrictor (e.g., boa)
astringir
astringente
(to) astringe
astringent
estricto
estrictamente
estrechez
estrechar
strict
strictly
straitness (narrowness), (dire) straits
(to) straiten (make narrow)
This last word is used most commonly in the expression estrechar la mano (“to
shake hands”). Estrecho is also used as a noun in the sense of the “narrow” part
of a river, i.e., English strait, with which it shares a common origin:
el estrecho de Gibraltar
the Strait of Gibraltar
It is often the case that one can trace a Spanish word through French to find
one or more relatives in English. Thus, strait arrived in English via Old French
estreit, which meant “narrow”, while Old French for “strait” was destreit. In
later French this became détroit, which of course explains the origin of the
name of the “Motor City”.
In the fifteenth century, Latin districtus (dis strictus) gave rise to
French district, initially the exercise of justice (“restraint”) in a certain area,
then the territory itself, which was marked off for a special administrative purpose. It subsequently entered Spanish (sixteenth century) and English (seventeenth century) with this latter definition. Thus,
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INTRODUCTION
distrito

district
districtia, a “popular” Latin word derived from districtus, had earlier given
rise via Old French destrece to English distress: “the sore pressure or strain of
adversity” (OED). A newspaper headline like
DETROIT DISTRICT IN DISTRESS!!!
can therefore be seen, etymologically at least, as being (multiply) redundant.
Old French estrece (from popular Latin strictia) was the source of English stress (fourteenth century), and six centuries later this was reexported to
Spanish:
estrés
stress
Finally, the Spanish verb that corresponds directly to Latin stringere is estreñir, cognate with English strain. It applies to a particular type of “strain” or
“constriction”, that which takes place in the intestines:
estreñir
estreñimiento
estreñido
(to) constipate
constipation
constipated
This, of course, raises the question of what constipado means in Spanish. Like
English constipated, it comes from the Latin verb stipare (“to crowd together”,
“to compress”). However, in Spanish the compression generally refers to an altogether different part of the body:
constipar
constipado
(to) catch cold
suffering from a cold, a cold
so that a Spanish speaker suffering from a cold is likely to receive an altogether
different remedy from an English-speaking pharmacist than from a Spanishspeaking one.
Thus, without a great deal of effort, we have extended our initial equivalence
estrecho “strict” to a score of additional Spanish words, and have at the same
time cast new light on several English words.
We can see from the above examples that words that share a common Latin
origin often evolve along different paths, in both form and meaning. This is in
fact one of the principal ways that languages “evolve” and eventually break up

English constipation was not always restricted to the intestinal variety: until the eighteenth
century, constipate could also mean “to make fi rm and compact by pressing together”, “to condense or thicken liquids”, “to close the pores”. Many Spanish speakers, particularly in the Americas, use resfrío or resfriado for “cold”.
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
INTRODUCTION
into different languages. Taking English as an example, we know that nearly
every word has a minimum of two definitions, and in many cases substantially
more. Suppose that when we meet, I use only odd-numbered definitions and
you use only even-numbered ones. Will we understand each other? Probably
not, or if so, only with great difficulty. Suppose now that I alter the form of my
words in reasonably systematic ways, say replacing ct with ch, cul by j, t by d
whenever it occurs between vowels, etc., and you make a series of similar but
different changes. We will now have created languages as far apart as Spanish
and Italian—in fact, all of the changes mentioned above occurred during the
evolution of Latin to Spanish.
False Friends
Nearly every student of a foreign language has been warned about the perils
of “false friends” (falsos amigos, faux amis, falsi amici, falsche Freunde, etc.),
which seem to bear a relation to a word in English but actually do not. Lesson
of the story: never assume that you can figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word from its form alone. In Spanish, for example, the following appear in
nearly every such list of “false friends”:
Spanish
Meaning
False English Friend
actual
arena
largo
“present, current”
“sand”
“long”
actual
arena
large
Much as the “exception proves the rule”, false friends often turn out to be great
aids in learning new vocabulary. In the majority of cases, they have an important story to tell, which is generally that one language has chosen to focus on,
let us say, the even-numbered definitions, and the other, on the odd-numbered
ones.
First, consider Spanish arena. Everyone knows that an arena is a sports stadium, so where in the world did the Spanish come up with arena for “sand”? 
The explanation is very simple: the original Latin meaning of arena was not
“stadium” but “sand”. Sand was frequently used to cover the ground in coliseums and other sporting venues, the better to absorb the blood of gladiators.
arena (“the sand”) then became a shorthand term for the stadium in which
gladiators performed. sabulum, which originally meant “sand of a somewhat

Spanish arena can also mean “arena”, either as a classical site for gladiator combat or in the
more “modern” sense of a site for bullfighting.
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INTRODUCTION

coarser variety”, then came to replace arena in the generic sense of “sand”.
sabulum evolved into French (sable) and Italian (sabbia) for “sand”, while
Spanish maintained the older term arena in its original sense, limiting sábulo
to the meaning “coarse sand”. This is by no means a rare occurrence: due to
the early colonization of the Iberian Peninsula (before France and much of
northern Italy) and its relative isolation, Spanish and Portuguese have in many
cases maintained meanings of Latin words and expressions that were subsequently dropped in regions closer to Rome.
How is it that Spanish actual has a meaning in terms of time (“now”), while
in English it means “existing and not merely potential or possible”? If one actually looks in the dictionary, one will see that there is another definition of
English actual:
Being, existing, or acting at the present moment; current (AHCD).
Similarly, in Spanish there is also a second definition:
Real, por oposición a “potencial” (Moliner). “Real, as opposed to ‘potential.’ ”
So both Spanish and English actual do share common meanings, but English
has chosen to emphasize one, Spanish another.
From this (not-so-) false friend, one can immediately establish a number
of very real correspondences derived from the Latin verb agere (“to drive”,
“to do”) and its past participle actus, all of which (actually) do correspond in
meaning:
Spanish
English
Spanish
English
acto
actor
actriz
acción
—acciones
actividad
activista
activo
—activos
act
actor
actress
action
—shares/stocks
activity
activist
active
—assets
activar
actuario
agenda
agente
agencia
reacción
reaccionar
reaccionario
reactor
(to) activate
actuary
agenda
agent
agency
reaction
(to) react
reactionary
reactor

The original sense of Latin arena survives in the English adjective arenaceous (“resembling,
derived from, or containing sand”).
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