Spanish words from Latin
316 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
abrir
It is inherited from Latin aperīre (“to open”). The same Latin verb is Portuguese abrir, Catalan obrir, Occitan obrir, French ouvrir and Italian aprire. The REW explains the forms with ⟨o⟩, still…
accidente
It is borrowed from Latin accidēns (“chance event; non-essential quality”), the present participle of accidō (“to fall upon; to happen”) used as a noun. The verb is formed ad- and cadō (“to fall”)…
acusar
It is inherited from Latin accūsō (“to call to account, accuse”); the Old Spanish form was already acusar. The verb was formed from Latin ad- + causa (“cause; lawsuit”): it belonged first to the…
afrontar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *affrontō (“to face, confront”), formed from ad (“to”) and frōns (“forehead, front”). Corominas treats it as a derivative of Old Spanish fruente “forehead” common…
agente
It is borrowed from Latin agens (“doing, acting”), the present participle of agō (“to drive, do, act”). De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”). Corominas…
agrio
It continues inherited from Old Spanish agro, altered under the influence of the verb agriar. The old form is inherited from Late Latin ācrus (“sharp”), the form the classical Latin ācer (“sharp…
agua
It is inherited from Latin aqua (“water”); Old Spanish agua has the same form in the earliest texts. Spanish kept the Latin /kʷ/ between vowels as /ɡʷ/, the usual voicing of a voiceless stop in that…
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⟩…
albo
It is inherited from Old Spanish albo, borrowed from Latin albus (“white”). Corominas says that outside a few very archaic Castilian or Mozarabic texts it was only ever a Latinism or a poetic word…
allá
It is inherited from Latin illāc (“by that way, there”). Wiktionary and Menéndez Pidal derive it from ad (“to”) together with the same adverb. Corominas notes that these Latin adverbs were stressed…
alma
It is inherited from Old Spanish alma, inherited from Latin anima (“air, breath; soul”). The learned form ánima lived beside the popular one and is still used in rustic speech, especially of the…
alto
1. The word for “high, tall” is inherited from Latin altus (“high; deep”). Corominas explains its sound as the influence of the more learned layers of speech: a fully popular word would have become…
alumbre
It is inherited from Latin alūminem (“alum”), the accusative of the Latin word. The same word is Italian allume, French alun, Catalan alum and the Portuguese pedra hume. Corominas takes the variants…
amar
It is inherited from Latin amō (“to love”); Old Spanish amar has the modern form from the first texts. The same verb is Portuguese amar, Galician amar, Catalan amar, Italian amare and French aimer…
ambos
It is inherited from Latin ambōs (“both”). The usual Old Spanish form was amos, the only truly Castilian one. The form with ⟨b⟩ lived on beside it, first as a Leonese form, and then spread with the…
amenaza
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin minācia (“threat”); the oldest Spanish form is menaza. The initial ⟨a-⟩ comes from the verb amenazar, helped by a misdivision of ⟨la menaza⟩, ⟨una menaza⟩…
amigo
It is inherited from Old Spanish amigo, inherited from Latin amīcus (“friend”), which is formed from amō (“to love”). The same Latin word is Portuguese amigo, Galician amigo, Asturian amigu, Catalan…
amor
It is inherited from Latin amor (“love, passion”); Old Spanish amor has the same form. The Latin noun is formed from amō (“to love”) with the suffix -or. The same Latin word is Portuguese amor…
andar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *amlāre (“to walk”), a careless Romance pronunciation of Latin ambulō (“to walk”), according to the DCECH and the DLE. Wiktionary takes it from the early Medieval…
ángulo
It is borrowed from Latin angulus (“angle, corner”). The same Alfonsine astronomical text also has the semi-popular form anglo, and Aragonese anglo is the Aragonese form. García de Diego notes that…
año
It is inherited from Old Spanish anno, inherited from Latin annus (“year”). The same Latin word is Portuguese ano, Galician ano, Asturian añu, Catalan any, French an, Italian anno and Romanian an…
arribar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arripāre (“to reach the shore”), formed from ad- (“to”) and rīpa (“bank, shore”). Medieval Latin texts have adripare (“to land”). In Spanish terms it is a- with…
así
It is inherited from Old Spanish assí. Corominas explains it as formed from Old Spanish a- + sí (“thus”), the older adverb, which is from Latin sīc (“thus, so”); the ⟨a-⟩ merely lengthens the…
auto
1. The word for a deed or a judicial decree is inherited from Old Spanish auto, inherited from Latin āctus (“a doing; an act”). It came into Spanish by a semi-learned route, and the DCECH calls it…
autoridad
It is borrowed from Latin auctōritās (“guarantee; authority, prestige”), first recorded in Berceo in a Latinising spelling. The Latin noun is formed on auctor (“creator, author; guarantor, seller”)…
ayudar
It is inherited from Latin adiūtō (“to help”), the frequentative of adiuvō, itself formed from iuvō (“to help”); Old Spanish ayudar has the same form from the Cid on. The same Latin verb is…
bajar
It is inherited from Old Spanish baxar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *bassiare (“to lower”). The Vulgar Latin verb is formed from Late Latin bassus (“stout and short; low”), or, in the DLE's wording…
base
It is borrowed from Latin basis (“base, pedestal, foundation”), which is from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “step; that on which one stands, base”). The Greek word is a noun of βαίνω (baínō, “to walk…
batir
It is inherited from Latin battuere (“to beat, pound”), in its popular form battere. Old Spanish had both the etymological infinitive bater and the form batir, which Berceo already uses several…
beber
It is inherited from Old Spanish bever, inherited from Latin bibō (“to drink”). Wiktionary puts the modern spelling with ⟨b⟩ for the medieval ⟨v⟩ down to the influence of the Latin spelling. The…
bien
It is inherited from Old Spanish bien, inherited from Latin bene (“well”), the adverb of bonus (“good”). The Latin adverb continues an older ablative *duenēd, from duenos, and goes back to…
bolsa
1. The word for the bag is inherited from Old Spanish bolsa, inherited from Late Latin bursa (“hide; leather bag, purse”). Corominas calls it semi-learned or a late arrival: as a fully popular word…
bonanza
It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *bonacia (“calm at sea”), an alteration of Latin malacia (“dead calm”) shared by several Romance languages. The change came from bonus (“good”), because…
bueno
It is inherited from Latin bonus (“good”), recorded as Old Spanish bueno in a charter of 1032 and in the Cantar de mio Cid. The learned ⟨bonus⟩ is a later borrowing of the same Latin word. The same…
bullir
It is inherited from Old Spanish bullir, inherited from Latin bulliō (“to bubble, boil”). The Latin verb is formed from bulla (“bubble”). Wiktionary calls the origin of the noun uncertain: perhaps…
cabo
It is inherited from Latin caput (“head”); the Old Spanish form was already cabo. Wiktionary gives the intermediate form as Vulgar Latin *capus; Coromines notes that the neuter caput behaves in…
caer
It is inherited from Old Spanish caer, inherited from Late Latin cadēre, a Late Latin remodelling of Latin cadō (“to fall”). DÉRom reconstructs both the classical stress, */ˈkadere/, and a form…
caldera
It is inherited from Late Latin caldāria (“cooking pot, cauldron”), recorded in Spanish from 922. Latin caldāria was a noun made from the feminine of the adjective caldārius (“of or for warming”)…
calma
It is borrowed from Late Latin cauma (“heat”), from Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma, “burning heat, especially of the sun”), a derivative of καίω (kaíō, “to burn”). The word was first applied to the…
cama
It is inherited from Old Spanish cama, inherited from Late Latin cama (“bedding, a bed on the ground”). The Latin word is known only from Isidore of Seville, who describes the cama as a short bed…
cámara
It is inherited from Old Spanish camara, inherited from Vulgar Latin camara (“vault”), a variant of Latin camera, from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “vault, vaulted room”). The DLE gives a Medieval…
campaña
It is inherited from Late Latin campānia (“level country, plain”), recorded from the 6th century. The Late Latin noun is the feminine of the adjective campāneus “of the plain”, from Latin campus…
campo
It is inherited from Old Spanish campo, inherited from Latin campus (“plain, open level ground”). In Latin the land that is tilled was ager; its use for such land is an innovation shared by all the…
cansar
It is most probably inherited from Latin campsō (“to sail round, double (a cape); to turn aside”), the explanation of the DCECH, the BDELC and the DLE. The Latin verb was a sailors' word: Ennius…
cárcel
It is inherited from Latin carcer (“prison, jail”); Old Spanish cárcere, recorded in the 10th century, had taken its present form by the time of the Cid. The final /l/ arose by dissimilation of the…
caro
It is inherited from Latin cārus (“dear; costly”). The Latin word already had both senses, “loved” and “precious, expensive”, which Spanish kept. The same word is Portuguese caro, Galician caro…
carrera
It is inherited from Late Latin carrāria (“road for carts”), short for via carrāria (“cart road”); the DLE and the DCECH write it as Vulgar Latin *carraria. It is the feminine of the adjective…
casa
It is inherited from Latin casa (“hut, cottage”), and Old Spanish casa has the same form. In Vulgar Latin it replaced domus (“house”) as the word for a dwelling; Isidore of Seville still defined it…
caso
It is borrowed from Latin cāsus (“fall; chance, accident; grammatical case”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from cadō (“to fall, happen”), the source of caer, with the suffix -tus; the…
cazar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *captiāre; the Old Spanish form was caçar. The Vulgar Latin verb is derived from captus, the past participle of capiō (“to take, seize”); the DLE connects it with…
celoso
It is inherited from Late Latin zēlōsus (“zealous; jealous”), as the DLE, the REW, García de Diego and Wiktionary give it. The BDELC lists it among the derivatives of celo, a learned borrowing of…
cinco
It is inherited from Old Spanish çinco, inherited from Vulgar Latin cinque (“five”), from Latin quīnque. cinque is frequent in Christian-era inscriptions; it arose from quīnque by dissimilation of…
col
It is inherited from Latin caulis (“stalk, stem; cabbage”). The Latin word was masculine; it became feminine in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan and in some Sardinian dialects, a gender already…
color
It is inherited from Old Spanish color, inherited from Latin color (“colour”). The same Latin word is Portuguese cor (older coor), Galician cor, Asturian color, Catalan color, Occitan color, French…
combatir
It is inherited from Late Latin combattuere (“to fight with, fight”), in the popular form *combattere, a compound of com- (“with, together”) and battuō (“to beat”) (see batir). Corominas treats it…
comenzar
It is inherited from Old Spanish començar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *cominitiare. The Vulgar Latin verb is formed from com- and initiō (“to initiate”), which Christian authors already used for…
comer
It is inherited from Old Spanish comer, inherited from Vulgar Latin *comēre, a remodelled form of Latin comedō (“to eat up, consume”). Corominas finds it unlikely that the classical infinitive gave…
cometer
It is inherited from Old Spanish cometer, inherited from Latin committere (“to bring together; to entrust; to set fighting, begin a fight”). That verb is formed from Latin con- + mittō (“to send…
como
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin quomo, a contraction of Latin quōmodo (“in what way?; in the way that”). The contracted form is found from the 2nd or 3rd century AD, according to Pirson, and…
con
It is inherited from Latin cum (“with”), with the same form in Old Spanish con. The Latin final /m/ became /n/, as in quien from quem: Bénaben explains this by the loss of the contrast between…