300–201 BC

Spanish words from Latin words first recorded in the 3rd century BC

412 Spanish words inherited from a Latin word whose earliest known written record dates from the 3rd century BC, earliest Latin record first (page 7).

toro
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin taurus

It is inherited from Latin taurus (“bull”). The word has been in general use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages. The same Latin word is Portuguese touro, Galician touro…
vano
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin vanus

It is inherited from Latin vānus (“empty, hollow; vain”). Corominas notes that the word survives in all the western Romance languages, in several with unmistakably inherited forms, and sees no…
verga
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin virga

It is inherited from Latin virga (“shoot, twig; rod”). The stressed short i of the Latin word gives ⟨e⟩, as in Portuguese verga, Galician verga, Catalan verga, Italian verga and French verge…
vestir
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin vestio

It is inherited from Latin vestīre (“to clothe, dress”), used in Spanish in every period and common to all the Romance languages. The same verb is Portuguese vestir, Galician vestir, Asturian…
vez
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin vicis

It is inherited from Latin vicis (“turn, alternation; place, office”), used in the accusative ⟨vicem⟩ and the ablative ⟨vice⟩. The Latin word has no attested nominative singular; the Academy's…
vientre
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin venter

It is inherited from Old Spanish vientre, inherited from Latin venter (“belly, abdomen”). Wiktionary derives the Spanish form from the Latin accusative. Corominas notes that the word has been in…
viudo
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin viduus

It continues inherited from Latin viduus (“deprived of a spouse, widowed”). The feminine viuda, from vidua, is recorded from about 1140, the masculine only from 1495. Bénaben and Wiktionary take the…
viña
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin vinea

It is inherited from Old Spanish vinna, inherited from Latin vīnea (“vines in a vineyard; vineyard”), the feminine of vīneus (“of wine”) used as a noun, from vīnum (“wine”). Corominas notes that the…
voluntad
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin voluntas

It is inherited from Old Spanish voluntad, inherited from Latin voluntās (“will, choice”), taken from the accusative. Corominas and Wiktionary treat it as a semi-learned word that became part of the…
voz
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin vox

It is inherited from Old Spanish voz, inherited from Latin vox (“voice”). Corominas notes that the word has been in popular use in every period. Wiktionary suggests that the sense “word, term” is a…
árbol
205 BC–184 BC

from Latin arbor

It is inherited from Old Spanish arbor, later arbol, inherited from Latin arbor (“tree”). The final /r/ became /l/ by dissimilation from the first /r/, a change also seen in cárcel. The same Latin…
agüero
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin augurium

It is inherited from Old Spanish aguero, inherited from Latin augurium (“augury”). The Latin noun is formed from augur (“augur”). The Romance forms point to a variant Vulgar Latin *agurium, already…
aire
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin aer

It is inherited from Old Spanish aire, inherited from Latin āēr (“air”), which is from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr). Catalan and Occitan have the same form, Catalan aire and Occitan aire…
ala
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin ala

It is inherited from Latin āla (“wing; armpit, shoulder”), unchanged in Old Spanish ala. The same Latin word is Catalan ala, Occitan ala, Italian ala and French aile. In Galician-Portuguese the ⟨l⟩…
buitre
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin vultur

It is inherited from Old Spanish boitre, inherited from Latin vultur (“vulture”). Wiktionary suggests that the spelling with ⟨b⟩ may owe something to būteō (“buzzard”). The same Latin word is…
calor
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin calor

It is inherited from Latin calor (“heat, warmth”); Old Spanish calor is first recorded in the first half of the 13th century. Corominas treats it in the article on caliente, with calentar and…
consejo
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin consilium

It is inherited from Old Spanish consejo, inherited from Latin cōnsilium (“deliberation, consultation; advisory assembly; advice”). The Latin word has the same origin as cónsul and cōnsulō (“to…
cual
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin qualis

It is inherited from Old Spanish qual, inherited from Latin quālis (“of what kind; such as”). In Latin the word asked or stated the quality or nature of something and answered to tālis (“such”); in…
cuanto
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin quantus

It is inherited from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”). Old Spanish wrote it quanto. The short form cuán probably comes from the neuter quantum by apocope, according to Corominas, while the…
entender
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin intendo

It is inherited from Old Spanish entender, inherited from Latin intendō (“to stretch out, direct”). Applied to the mind, the Latin verb meant “to turn one's attention”, hence “to hear” and “to…
escala
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin scala

It is inherited from Latin scāla (“step; ladder”). Latin mostly used the word in the plural for “steps”, “ladder” or “staircase”, but some late authors used the singular in this sense. Because the…
frente
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin frons

It continues inherited from Old Spanish fruente, inherited from Latin frōns (“forehead, brow; front”). The Old Spanish diphthong ue was reduced to e after the r, a regular change after a liquid that…
gobernador
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin gubernator

It is inherited from Old Spanish gouernador, inherited from Latin gubernātor (“helmsman, pilot”). Corominas lists it among the derivatives of gobernar, from gubernō (“to steer a ship; to govern”)…
gobernar
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin guberno

It is inherited from Old Spanish governar, inherited from Latin gubernō (“to steer a ship; to direct, govern”). The Latin verb was taken from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernáō, “to steer”). Beekes…
grado
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin gradus

1. The word for “degree, step” is inherited from Old Spanish grado (“step; rank”), inherited from Latin gradus (“step, pace; stair; degree”). Corominas notes that the word has been strongly…
hablar
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin fabulor

It is inherited from Old Spanish fablar, inherited from Latin fābulārī (“to talk, converse”), a familiar Latin verb derived from fābula (“conversation; story, fable”), itself from fārī (“to speak”)…
hermano
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin germanus

It is inherited from Latin germānus (“of the same parents; genuine”), short for frāter germānus (“brother by the same father and mother”); the Old Spanish forms were iermano and ermano. In Latin the…
igual
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin aequalis

It is inherited from Old Spanish egual, inherited from Latin aequālis (“of the same size or age; equal”), from aequus (“flat, smooth, even; equal”). egual is Berceo's usual form, but igual already…
labor
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin labor

It is inherited from Old Spanish lavor, inherited from Latin labor (“toil, work, task”). Corominas notes that the word was clearly popular in the Middle Ages and that its sound development is that…
ladrón
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin latro

It is inherited from Old Spanish ladron, inherited from Latin latro (“mercenary; brigand”). The word is common to all the Romance languages except Romanian and Sardinian: Portuguese ladrão, Galician…
lleno
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin plenus

It is inherited from Old Spanish lleno, also written leno, lenno and llieno, inherited from Latin plēnus (“full”). The word has been in general use in every period and is common to all the Romance…
luchar
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin luctor

It is inherited from Latin luctor (“to wrestle, struggle”), whose active form luctāre was the Old Latin one. The verb has survived in all the Romance languages: Portuguese lutar, once luitar…
mal
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin male

The adverb is inherited from Latin male (“badly”), the adverb of malus (“bad”). It is found from the earliest texts and is common to the whole of Romance. The same Latin adverb is Portuguese mal…
mandar
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin mando

It is inherited from Old Spanish mandar, inherited from Latin mandāre (“to hand over, entrust”). Corominas glosses the Latin verb as “to entrust, give a mission to; to commit (something) to…
marina
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin marinus

It is inherited from Latin marīna, the feminine of the Latin adjective “of the sea” used as a noun. For the Academy it is from Spanish marino instead, but Corominas dates the noun to about 1250 and…
muro
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin murus

It is inherited from Old Spanish muro, inherited from Latin mūrus (“wall, city wall”). From the start the Ibero-Romance word was used above all for a city wall, a thick outer wall that defends a…
nombrar
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin nomino

It is inherited from Old Spanish nombrar, inherited from Latin nōmināre (“to name; to appoint”). An older Castilian form nomnar shows the stage before /mn/ became /mbr/: the Latin infinitive first…
nos
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin nos

It is inherited from Latin nōs (“we, us”), the plural of ego (“I”), and Old Spanish nos has the same form. Wiktionary traces it to the Latin accusative and to the dative nōbīs. The same pronoun is…
oscuro
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin obscurus

It continues inherited from Old Spanish escuro, inherited from Latin obscūrus (“dark, gloomy”), with its form brought back towards the Latin in the Golden Age. The medieval form ⟨escuro⟩ runs from…
pelar
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin pilo

It is inherited from Latin pilāre (“to remove the hair”), from pilus (“hair”). In classical Latin the verb is recorded only as an intransitive “to grow hairy”; the sense “to strip of hair, depilate”…
piedad
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin pietas

It is inherited from Old Spanish piedat, inherited from Latin pietās (“dutiful respect; piety; pity”). The variant piadad, very frequent throughout the Middle Ages, is the source of piadoso. The…
pino
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin pinus

It is inherited from Latin pīnus (“pine tree”). Corominas notes that the word is common to all the Romance languages except Portuguese, which calls the tree pinheiro and keeps pinho for pine wood or…
puente
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin pons

It is inherited from Old Spanish puente, inherited from Latin pōns (“bridge”). The Latin noun was masculine, and so is the word in most Romance languages; it became feminine only in Spanish…
rapaz
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin rapax

It is inherited from Latin rapāx (“grasping, rapacious”) in the view of most sources, probably taken over in a semi-learned form that kept the Latin /p/. Corominas holds that the noun, which in the…
requerir
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin requiro

It is inherited from Old Spanish requerir, inherited from Latin requīrō (“to seek again, look for; to ask, demand”). Corominas treats it as one of the derivatives of querer and calls it general in…
segundo
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin secundus

It is inherited from Latin secundus (“following; second”), by a semi-learned route: Corominas finds the treatment of the stressed vowel surprising, since popular development would have given…
sudor
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin sudor

It is inherited from Latin sudor (“sweat”). The inherited form was Old Spanish suor, with the loss of the Latin /d/ between vowels, as in Portuguese suor and Galician suor; the modern form kept or…
sueño
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin somnus

It is inherited from Latin somnus (“sleep”) (Old Spanish suenno), and Spanish merged with it Latin somnium (“dream”), a derivative of ⟨somnus⟩. From the first literary text on, ⟨sueño⟩ has had the…
velar
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin vigilo

1. The word for keeping watch is inherited from Latin vigilō (“to stay awake; to be watchful”). The learned doublet is vigilar, first recorded in Autoridades; the nautical vigía came through…
vid
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin vitis

It is inherited from Latin vītis (“grapevine; vine stock; rod”). The BDELC glosses the Latin word “vine (the stock or the species)” and “small rod”. Portuguese vide, Galician vide and Asturian vide…
vida
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin vita

It is inherited from Latin vīta (“life”). The same word is Portuguese vida, Galician vida, Catalan vida, Occitan vida, French vie and Italian vita; Romanian vită has come to mean “living creature…
viento
204 BC–169 BC

from Latin ventus

It is inherited from Latin ventus (“wind”), already viento in the oldest texts. It has been in general use in every period and survives in all the Romance languages: Portuguese vento, Galician…

All Spanish words inherited from Latin, by century →