Spanish words first recorded in the 16th century

According to Corominas it is from Spanish cuca (“caterpillar, larva of a moth”), a word of expressive creation from children's speech, which itself means “cockroach” in Álava and the Philippines. In…

It is a blend, from Spanish papa (“potato”) + batata (“sweet potato”), according to the Academy's dictionary, Corominas, Moliner and Bénaben. papa is from Quechua papa, and batata is a word of the…

It is borrowed from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl (“cacao bean”), taken in the stem form cacáua that the word has in compounds. Corominas explains the ending: the Spaniards met the stem in compounds…

It is borrowed from Italian modello, which comes from Vulgar Latin *modellus, a diminutive of Latin modulus (“small measure; rhythm”) and synonymous with it. The Latin word is in turn a diminutive…

It is borrowed from Italian valigia, a word of uncertain origin, perhaps pre-Roman. French valise and German Felleisen were taken from Italian too. Corominas finds it late in Spanish, and suggests…

It is borrowed from Italian brillare (“to whirl, to quiver; to shine”), a poetic Italianism that came into Spanish in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Corominas notes that it is still missing…

It is formed from Spanish disponer + -ible, as the DRAE of 2001 and Alemany give it. Wiktionary takes it instead as a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin dispōnibilis, itself from dispōnō (“to…

It is borrowed from Latin praecīsus (“cut off; abrupt; shortened”), the past participle of praecīdō (“to cut off in front, shorten”), formed from prae- (“in front”) and caedō (“to cut”). Corominas…

It is borrowed from Latin dēcīdō (“to cut off; to decide, settle”). The Latin verb is formed from dē- (“down, off”) and caedō (“to cut”), so that its figurative sense is “to cut short, settle” a…

It is borrowed from Latin labium (“lip”), taken in the 16th century to replace Old Spanish labro, which was inherited from labrum. In Latin that form was the more classical one, but the borrowed…

It is borrowed from Classical Nahuatl chocolātl, a word of Aztec origin whose formation is uncertain. Loewe and Friederici, whom Corominas follows, conclude that it cannot be analysed except for its…