Spanish words from Catalan
33 Spanish words with Catalan in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
avanzar
It is borrowed from Catalan avançar, taken over in the 15th century, and later influenced by Italian avanzare in the old commercial sense and by French avancer in the military sense, from which the…
barraca
It is borrowed from Catalan barraca, a word first recorded in a Valencian document of 1249. Corominas considers it certain that Castilian took it from Catalan, where it is older and commoner. The…
belleza
It is formed from Spanish bello + -eza, as the DCECH and the Academy's dictionary of 2001 present it. Wiktionary thinks it was probably borrowed from Catalan bellesa, with belhesa as the other…
borde
1. The word for the edge is borrowed from French bord, from Frankish *bord (“side of a ship”). The Frankish word is reconstructed from Old Norse borð and its cognates, among them Dutch boord and Old…
bosque
It is borrowed from Catalan bosc or Occitan bosc, a word that these languages share with French, the dialects of northern Italy and the Germanic languages; its origin is uncertain. Prat Sabater…
burdel
It is borrowed from Catalan bordell, or perhaps Occitan bordel, both meaning “brothel”. The word appears almost at the same time in Occitan (early 13th century), French bordel (13th century)…
esquife
It is borrowed from Catalan esquif, taken from Old Italian and dialectal Italian schifo, which comes from Lombardic *skif (“boat”). The final -e shows that the word passed through Catalan, where a…
fango
It is borrowed from Catalan fang (“mud”), a very popular word in Catalan, recorded there from the 13th century. Corominas thinks it probably came through Aragon, or as a term of carriage and…
feble
It is borrowed from Catalan feble (“weak”), which comes from Vulgar Latin *febilis, a form of Latin flēbilis (“lamentable; tearful”). The Latin adjective is formed from fleō (“to weep”) with the…
gafa
It is borrowed from Catalan gafa (“hook, clasp”), a derivative of the verb gafar or agafar (“to grasp, take”). The DCECH points out that Castilian keeps the intervocalic /f/ here, which shows that…
guante
It is a Germanic word, probably borrowed from Catalan guant, which is from Frankish *want. Corominas rejects a direct borrowing from Gothic: there the word would probably have been *wantus, and the…
linaje
It is borrowed from Catalan llinatge, a dissimilated form of llinyatge, derived from llinya (“line”). Corominas argues that the dissimilation was unavoidable in Catalan, between the two palatals of…
litera
It is borrowed from Catalan llitera, a derivative of llit (“bed”), which continues Latin lectus (“bed”). Wiktionary and García de Diego trace the Catalan word to Late Latin lectuāria, the feminine…
lonja
1. The word for a slice or strip is borrowed from French longe (“strap, tether; loin”). In the sense of a strap, frequent in Old French from the 12th century for the falconer's leash and other…
maitines
It is borrowed from Catalan maitines, a western Catalan form beside standard matines, rather than Old Occitan matinas. Corominas, the BDELC and the DLE take these as feminine plurals of matí…
máscara
It is a borrowing whose route is disputed. Corominas thinks it most likely came borrowed from Catalan màscara rather than from Italian maschera, because it appears late in Spanish, and because a…
nivel
It is a borrowing of the mid-15th century, probably borrowed from Catalan nivell, which was livell in the Middle Ages. Prat Sabater accepts the Catalan origin on the grounds of the word's derivation…
oferta
It is borrowed from Catalan oferta, or a word of another Gallo-Romance language, from Vulgar Latin *offerita, an old past participle of Latin offerō (“to offer”). Corominas argues that the absence…
orgullo
It is borrowed from Catalan orgull, which is from Frankish *urgōlī (“excellence”), an abstract noun from the adjective *urgōl (“distinguished, excellent”), recorded in Old High German urguol…
patio
It is probably borrowed from Catalan pati (“yard; building plot”), a word shared with Old Occitan patu and its variant pati, which meant a communal pasture or waste land. Corominas holds that…
pila
1. The word for a pile is probably borrowed from Catalan pila (“heap”), from Latin pīla (“pillar, column”). Corominas finds no record of it in the medieval texts, in Nebrija, Covarrubias or the…
presa
It is inherited from Latin prēnsa (“seized, taken”), the feminine past participle of prehendō (“to grasp, seize”), with the contracted form prendō. In Spanish it began as the feminine of preso, one…
quijote
1. The word for the thigh armour is borrowed from Catalan cuixot (“thigh armour”), first adopted in the original form cuxot, found in Aragon in the fuero of 1350 and as coxotes in an Aragonese…
rol
1. The word for a part or function is borrowed from English role (“part played by an actor”), which is from French rôle. The Puerto Rican Tesoro also lists it as an adapted anglicism, while the DTME…
surgir
The nautical sense “to anchor” is borrowed from Catalan sorgir, which is common in the Catalan code of sea law, the Consolat de Mar, and in other Catalan texts from the 13th century on. The sense…
surtir
It is probably borrowed from Catalan sortir, Occitan sortir or French sortir, which mean or have meant the same and also “to go out”. Corominas thinks that Spanish took it from these neighbouring…
talla
Corominas takes it, in the sense “carving”, borrowed from Catalan talla (recorded in Catalan in 1351), and in the sense “stature” borrowed from French taille, a sense the Academy's dictionary had by…
tilde
It is a semi-popular doublet of título, probably borrowed from Catalan title or Old Occitan tille, taken as a term of grammar: its final ⟨-e⟩ shows that it cannot come straight from Latin. Medieval…
trajinar
It is probably borrowed from Catalan traginar (“to carry, transport”), which is current in Catalan by 1176, to judge from the noun tragí (“carrying”) in a document of that year. The Catalan verb…
trozo
It is inherited from Old Spanish troço, probably borrowed from Catalan tros (“piece”) or Occitan tros. The DLE calls it of unknown origin. Corominas sees it as a late word in Castilian: the Catalan…
vanguardia
It is inherited from Old Spanish avanguardia, borrowed from Catalan avantguarda (“vanguard”), and was later modified under the influence of Italian vanguardia. The Catalan word, recorded from the…
viaje
It is borrowed from Catalan viatge or Occitan viatge, which continue Latin viāticum (“provisions or money for a journey”). Corominas and Wiktionary favour Catalan, the DLE and Vox leave Catalan and…
vinagre
It is inherited from Old Spanish vinagre, borrowed from Catalan vinagre, literally “sour wine”. The DLE analyses the Catalan word as Old Catalan vin (“wine”) and agre (“sour”), which go back to…