English words from Portuguese
5 English words with Portuguese in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
caste
It is borrowed from Portuguese casta (“race, breed”), from the feminine of casto “pure”, from Latin castus (“pure, chaste”).
cobra
It is short for cobra capello (1671), borrowed from Portuguese cobra de capello (“snake with a hood”), from cobra (“snake”), from Latin colubra (“snake, female serpent”), feminine of coluber…
creole
It is borrowed from French créole, earlier criole, from Spanish criollo (“(person) native to a locality”), probably from Portuguese crioulo, a diminutive of cria “person, especially a servant…
mandarin
It is borrowed from Portuguese mandarim, partly through Spanish mandarín and older Dutch mandorijn, from Malay menteri, from Hindi मन्त्री (mantrī, “counsellor, minister of state”), from Sanskrit…
palaver
It is borrowed from Portuguese palavra (“word, speech”), from Late Latin parabola (“speech, parable”), from Latin parabola “comparison”. Etymonline calls it a doublet of parole, and says it was…