Catalan words from Latin
214 Catalan words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 3).
negar
1. The verb for denying is inherited from Old Catalan negar, which is inherited from Latin negō (“to say no, deny; to refuse”). It is common to all the western Romance languages: Spanish negar…
net
1. The word for clean is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nittus, the form of Latin nitidus (“shining, bright; neat, clean”) with an early loss of the unstressed /i/ between the two dentals. The…
neu
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nevem (“snow”), a form with an open /ɛ/ of Latin nix (“snow”), whose accusative was ⟨nivem⟩. The form with the open vowel also underlies Spanish nieve, Portuguese…
nit
It is inherited from Old Catalan nuyt, which is inherited from Latin nox (“night”), ablative ⟨nocte⟩. The Latin word comes from *nok⁽ʷ⁾ts, from *nókʷts, which also gave Ancient Greek νύξ (núx) and…
no
It is inherited from Old Catalan no, which is inherited from Latin nōn (“not”). The same Latin word is Spanish no, Italian non, French non, Portuguese não, Romanian nu and Occitan non. The Latin…
nom
It is inherited from Old Catalan nom, inherited from Latin nōmen (“name”). Scholars have long discussed whether the Romance forms come from the accusative ⟨nomen⟩ or from ⟨*nomine⟩: in Coromines's…
nombre
It is inherited from Old Catalan nombre, which is inherited from Latin numerus (“number”). The same Latin word is Romanian număr, Italian novero, French nombre and Old Occitan nombre. Spanish número…
obertura
It is inherited from Old Catalan obertura, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *opertūra, an alteration of apertūra (“opening”). The DCVB and the GDLC give the Latin word as its source, while…
obrir
It is inherited from Old Catalan obrir, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *operiō, a variant of Latin aperiō (“to open”). The same Vulgar Latin form is behind Occitan obrir and French ouvrir…
ombra
It is inherited from Old Catalan ombra, which is inherited from Latin umbra (“shadow, shade”), a word continued in all the Romance languages. The same Latin word is Italian ombra, French ombre…
ona
It is inherited from Latin unda (“wave; flowing water”). The same Latin word is Occitan onda, Spanish onda, Portuguese onda, Italian onda, French onde and Romanian undă. Beside the inherited word…
orella
It is inherited from Old Catalan oreylla, which is inherited from Latin ōricula (“ear”), the popular form of auricula with ⟨ō⟩ for ⟨au⟩. Coromines, the DCVB, Bruguera and the GDLC give the classical…
os
1. The word for the bone is inherited from Old Catalan os, which is inherited from Latin ossum (“bone”), a form recorded from Accius on beside classical os (genitive ⟨ossis⟩). The same Latin word is…
ou
It is inherited from Latin ōvum (“egg”). All the Romance languages point to a popular form with an open vowel, *ŏvum, and the Catalan word too has open /ɔ/. The same Latin word is Occitan uòu…
pau
1. The word for peace is inherited from Old Catalan pau, which is inherited from Latin pax (“peace”). The same Latin word is Occitan patz, French paix, Spanish paz, Italian pace and Romanian pace…
pecat
It is inherited from Latin peccātum (“fault, error; sin”). The Latin noun is the neuter past participle of peccō (“to err, to sin”). The same Latin word is Italian peccato, French péché, Occitan…
peix
It is inherited from Latin piscis (“fish”). The same Latin word is Occitan peis, Spanish pez, Portuguese peixe, Italian pesce and Romanian pește; French replaced it with the diminutive French…
pell
It is inherited from Old Catalan peyl, which is inherited from Latin pellis (“skin, hide”). The same Latin word is Occitan pèl, French peau, Italian pelle, Spanish piel, Portuguese pele and Romanian…
penedir-se
It is inherited from Old Catalan penedir, which is inherited from Late Latin (sē) paenitīre, the Late Latin reflexive verb made from paeniteō (“to cause regret; to regret”) by a change to the fourth…
percebre
It is inherited from Latin percipiō (“to seize; to receive; to perceive”). The same Latin verb is Romanian pricepe, French percevoir, Occitan percebre, Spanish percibir and Portuguese perceber. The…
perdonar
It is inherited from Late Latin perdōnō (“to give up entirely; to forgive”), recorded in the Latin Aesop and continued in all the Romance languages of the West. The GDLC explains it as “to give…
perdre
It is inherited from Old Catalan perdre, which is inherited from Latin perdō (“to destroy; to lose”), from the infinitive ⟨perdere⟩. The same Latin verb is Old Occitan perdre, French perdre, Spanish…
perill
It is inherited from Old Catalan perill, which is inherited from Latin perīculum (“trial, test; danger”), through the syncopated form periclum. The short form is regular in the comic poets and…
pes
It is inherited from Old Catalan pes, which is inherited from Latin pēnsum (“a weight of wool given to be spun”), the neuter of the past participle of pendō (“to weigh”). Coromines thinks the word…
pesar
It is inherited from Old Catalan pesar, which is inherited from Latin pēnsō (“to weigh carefully”), the frequentative or intensive of pendō (“to weigh”). The noun meaning “sorrow” is the infinitive…
pi
It is inherited from Old Catalan pin, the form of the first record, which is inherited from Latin pīnus (“pine tree”). The same Latin word is Occitan pin, French pin, Italian pino, Spanish pino and…
plantar
1. The word for “to plant” is inherited from Old Catalan plantar, which is inherited from Latin plantō (“to plant”). Wiktionary derives the Latin verb from planta with the verb suffix -ō. Coromines…
platja
It is inherited from Late Latin plagia (“shore, beach”). The Late Latin word is recorded from the end of the 6th century. Coromines, Bruguera and the GDLC derive the Late Latin word probably from…
plaure
It is inherited from Old Catalan plaer, which is inherited from Latin placeō (“to be pleasing”). Like voler, valer and saber it was at first a verb with an infinitive in ⟨-er⟩; the modern infinitive…
ploure
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin plovere, the Vulgar Latin verb that replaced classical pluō (“to rain”). The form with /v/ is recorded in Petronius and already in archaic Latin, though its…
poble
It is inherited from Old Catalan poble, which is inherited from Latin populus (“people, the body of citizens”). The same Latin word is Occitan pòble, French peuple, Spanish pueblo, Italian popolo…
poder
It is inherited from Old Catalan poder, inherited from Vulgar Latin potēre, the regular infinitive that spoken Latin made to replace classical posse. Wiktionary notes that ⟨potēre⟩ is attested…
polpa
It is inherited from Latin pulpa (“flesh, the fleshy parts; pulp of fruit”). The same Latin word is Romanian pulpă, Italian polpa, Old Occitan polpa, Portuguese polpa and Old French poupe; Spanish…
pols
1. The word for the pulse is inherited from Latin pulsus (“a push, blow”), the action noun of pellō (“to push, drive”). The Latin noun came to mean the beat of the arteries, and the Catalan word…
pont
It is inherited from Latin pōns (“bridge”), through its accusative. The same Latin word is Occitan pònt, Spanish puente, French pont, Italian ponte, Portuguese ponte and Romanian punte. Unlike…
porc
It is inherited from Old Catalan porc, which is inherited from Latin porcus (“pig”). The same Latin word is Occitan pòrc, French porc, Italian porco, Romanian porc, Spanish puerco and Portuguese…
preu
It is inherited from Old Catalan preu, which is inherited from Latin pretium (“price, value; reward”). The same Latin word is Romanian preț, Italian prezzo and Old Occitan pretz; Spanish precio and…
pudir
It is inherited from Old Catalan pudir, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pūtiō, a form of pūteō (“to stink, be rotten”) moved to another conjugation. The DCVB, the GDLC and Coromines derive it…
puny
It is inherited from Latin pugnus (“fist”). The same Latin word is Occitan ponh, Spanish puño, Portuguese punho, French poing, Italian pugno and Romanian pumn. Wiktionary takes the Latin noun back…
punyent
It is inherited from Latin pungēns (“pricking, piercing”), the present participle of pungō (“to prick”). In Catalan it is also the present participle of punyir, under which Bruguera lists it…
putrefacció
It is borrowed from Latin putrefactiō (“putrefaction”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from putrefaciō (“to cause to rot”) with the suffix -tiō. The verb is a compound of putreō (“to be…
quant
It is inherited from Old Catalan quant, which is inherited from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”). The same Latin word is Occitan quant, Spanish cuanto, Italian quanto, Portuguese quanto and…
quatre
It is inherited from Latin quattuor (“four”). The same Latin word is Old Occitan quatre, French quatre, Spanish cuatro, Italian quattro and Romanian patru. The Latin word goes back to *kʷettwōr…
que
1. The word for the relative pronoun is inherited from Latin quem (“whom, which”), the masculine accusative of the relative quī (“who, which”). The DCVB names both quid and the accusative as its…
ràbia
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin rabia, the Vulgar Latin form of Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness”). Wiktionary derives the Latin noun from rabiō (“to rave”). The same Latin word is Italian rabbia…
raig
It is inherited from Old Catalan raig, which is inherited from Latin radius (“staff; spoke of a wheel; ray of light”). It is a doublet of radi, borrowed from the same Latin word. The same Latin word…
raïm
It is inherited from Old Catalan raïm, spelt ⟨raym⟩ and ⟨rahim⟩ in the medieval texts, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin racīmus (“bunch of grapes”), a variant of racēmus (“bunch, cluster”). The…
ranci
It is inherited from Latin rancidus (“rotten, rancid”). The expected outcome of the Latin forms was a masculine ⟨rànceu⟩ and a feminine ⟨rància⟩; because the feminine was the commoner form (of…
roig
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ruiu, the spoken form of Latin rubeus (“reddish”), a derivative of ruber (“red”). Coromines stresses that the Latin word meant reddish, not the bright red of…
rompre
It is inherited from Old Catalan rompre, which is inherited from Latin rumpō (“to break, burst”). The same Latin verb is Occitan rompre, Spanish romper, French rompre, Italian rompere and Romanian…
ros
1. The word for dew is inherited from Latin rōs (“dew”). The Latin noun, genitive ⟨rōris⟩, was treated like a neuter, as other monosyllables were, which explains why the Romance word continues the…
sal
It is inherited from Latin sāl (“salt”). The same Latin word is Spanish sal, Portuguese sal, Occitan sal, French sel, Italian sale and Romanian sare. The Latin noun was usually masculine in…
salsa
It is inherited from Old Catalan salsa, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *salsa, a noun made from the feminine of salsus (“salted”). The Latin adjective is the past participle of sallō (“to…
salt
It is inherited from Old Catalan salt, which is inherited from Latin saltus (“a leap, a jump”). The Latin noun is derived from saliō (“to jump”). The verb saltar continues the Latin frequentative…
saltar
It is inherited from Old Catalan saltar, which is inherited from Latin saltō (“to dance”), the frequentative of saliō (“to jump”). In Latin the verb meant "to dance", and sometimes "to hop, frisk"…
salvar
It is inherited from Old Catalan salvar, which is inherited from Late Latin salvō (“to save”), a verb formed on Latin salvus (“safe, unharmed, whole”). The same Late Latin verb is Occitan salvar…
sang
It is inherited from Old Catalan sanc, which is inherited from Latin sanguis (“blood”). The same Latin word is Occitan sang, French sang, Italian sangue, Portuguese sangue, Romanian sânge and…
sant
It is inherited from Latin sānctus (“sacred, holy”), properly the past participle of sanciō (“to consecrate, make inviolable”). The same Latin word is Occitan sant, Spanish santo, Portuguese santo…
se
It is inherited from Latin sē (“oneself, himself, herself, themselves”), the accusative of the Latin reflexive pronoun. Bruguera and the GDLC note that the Latin accusative was formed by analogy…
sentir
It is inherited from Old Catalan sentir, which is inherited from Latin sentiō (“to perceive by the senses; to realise; to think”). The same Latin word is Spanish sentir, Portuguese sentir, Occitan…