Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 15).
inhibir
It is borrowed from Latin inhibeō (“to hold back, restrain”). The Latin verb is formed in- and habeō (“to have, hold”). In classical Latin it meant “to restrain, check”, and also “to bring authority…
inicio
It is a learned borrowed from Latin initium (“beginning”). The Latin noun is formed from ineō (“to go into, enter; to begin”) with the suffix -ium, and the verb from in (“into”) and eō (“to go”)…
inmaduro
Wiktionary treats it as a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin immātūrus (“unripe, immature; untimely”), adapted to the form of maduro. The Autoridades also derives it from the Latin adjective…
innato
It is borrowed from Latin innātus (“inborn, natural”). The Latin adjective is the participle of innāscī (“to be born in, arise in”), formed from in- (“in”) and nāscor (“to be born”). The simple verb…
innoble
It is borrowed from Latin ignōbilis (“unknown, obscure; low-born”), as Wiktionary, the Diccionario de Autoridades and the Academy's dictionary of 1884 say. The Latin adjective is formed in- (“not”)…
inocente
It is borrowed from Latin innocēns (“harmless; blameless”), a learned word. Corominas dates it 1220–1250. This adjective is formed from Latin in- (“not”) + nocēns (“harmful, guilty”), the present…
inquisidor
It is borrowed from Latin inquīsītor (“searcher, investigator”). The Latin noun is an agent noun of inquīrō (“to search for, inquire”) with -tor, and the verb is formed in- and quaerō (“to seek…
insistir
It is borrowed from Latin insisto (“to stand on; to press on, persist”), a learned word of the 15th century. Corominas treats it in the article existir, among the learned Spanish verbs taken from…
insomnio
It is borrowed from Latin insomnium, a learned word. Corominas lists it, beside insomne, among the learned words of the family of sueño. Wiktionary calls its source Vulgar Latin, and the Academy's…
inspirar
It is borrowed from Latin īnspīrō (“to blow into; to breathe into, inspire”), a learned word. The verb is formed from Latin in- + spīrō (“to breathe”). The BDELC treats it with the other learned…
inteligente
It is borrowed from Latin intelligēns (“understanding; expert”), a variant of intellegēns. The Latin word is the present participle of intellegō (“to understand”); the spelling with ⟨e⟩ is the more…
inteligible
It is borrowed from Latin intelligibilis (“that can be understood”). The Latin adjective is formed on intellegō (“to understand”) with -bilis, and the verb comes from legō (“to gather, choose”). The…
intención
It is borrowed from Latin intentiō (“a stretching; attention; purpose”), a learned word. Corominas counts it among the learned words of the family of tender. The same Latin word gave Portuguese…
interés
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin interesse (“compensation; interest on a loan”), the infinitive of the Latin verb “to be between; to matter” used as a noun. The Medieval Latin noun meant damages…
interior
It is borrowed from Latin interior (“inner, further in”), a learned word. In Latin it is a comparative formed from inter (“between, among”), though with the sense of a positive; Gómez de Silva…
interno
It is borrowed from Latin internus (“inward, internal”), a learned word of the middle of the 15th century. The Latin adjective is formed from inter (“between, among”) with the suffix -nus. The…
inundar
It is borrowed from Latin inundō (“to flood, overflow”), a learned word. Corominas dates it from about 1580, but the CDH has it two centuries earlier, in an Aragonese translation of the late 14th…
inútil
It is borrowed from Latin inūtilis (“useless, unserviceable”). The Latin adjective was formed from in- (“not”) and ūtilis (“useful”), which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of ūtor (“to use”)…
invadir
It is borrowed from Latin invādō (“to go into, attack, invade”). Bénaben derives it from a Vulgar Latin form with the ending of the fourth conjugation, *invadire. In Medieval Latin the verb also…
inventor
It is borrowed from Latin inventor (“discoverer, deviser”). The Latin noun is formed on inveniō (“to come upon, find”) with the agent suffix -tor. The verb is in- and veniō (“to come”), which de…
inversión
It is borrowed from Latin inversiō (“inversion, transposition”), from invertō (“to turn upside down, invert”) with the suffix -tiō. Corominas lists it, with invertir and inverso, among the learned…
investidura
It is formed from Spanish investir + -dura. investir is from Latin investiō (“to clothe, cover”), formed in- and vestiō (“to clothe”), and its popular doublet is embestir. Medieval Latin had…
investigador
It is borrowed from Latin investīgātor (“one who searches out, investigator”), from investīgō (“to track down, search out”) with the agent suffix -tor. Corominas lists it, without a date, among the…
invierno
It is inherited from Old Spanish ivierno, inherited from Late Latin hībernum (“winter”), short for tempus (“time, season”) hībernus (“wintry”). The DCECH's first record of the nasalised form, which…
invisible
It is borrowed from Late Latin invīsibilis (“invisible”), a learned borrowing. The Latin adjective, first found in Celsus, is formed from in- (“not”) and vīsibilis (“that can be seen”). That…
invitar
It is borrowed from Latin invītāre (“to invite; to entertain”), a learned word. The inherited outcome of the same Latin verb is envidar “to bid, raise the stakes” in card games. Across the Romance…
ir
It is inherited from Latin īre (“to go”). The Romance languages kept the infinitive of the Latin verb only in Spanish and Portuguese, in the Bearnese valleys of Aspe and Barétous and in some…
isla
It is inherited from Old Spanish isla, inherited from Vulgar Latin *īsula, from Latin īnsula (“island”). Corominas rejects Meyer-Lübke's view that the Spanish word and Portuguese ilha are learned…
jaspe
It is borrowed from Latin iaspis (“a precious stone like agate”), from Ancient Greek ἴασπις (íaspis). The Greek word is a loan from the East: Beekes compares יָשְׁפֵה (yāšəfēh) and yašpû, the name…
jeringa
It is inherited from Old Spanish siringa, borrowed from Late Latin syringa (“syringe, enema”). Wiktionary and Gómez de Silva call the Latin source Medieval Latin. The Latin word was made on the…
joder
It is inherited from Old Spanish foder, inherited from Latin futuō (“to have sex with (a woman)”). Corominas notes that Spanish and Galician-Portuguese continue a base Vulgar Latin *futere, closer…
joven
It is inherited from Old Spanish joven, inherited from Latin iuvenis (“young; young man”), but a semi-learned word rather than a popular one. Inherited in the popular way, the Latin word would have…
juego
It is inherited from Latin iocus (“joke, jest; amusement”). The Latin word was a verbal jest, and it replaced ludus (“game, play”) as the general word for play in Late Latin. The same word is…
jueves
It is inherited from Old Spanish jueves, inherited from Latin Iovis (“of Jupiter”), short for the phrase diēs Iovis (“day of Jupiter”). This is the genitive of the god's name, whose nominative is…
juez
It is inherited from Old Spanish júdez, inherited from Latin iudex (“judge”). Corominas calls it a semi-learned descendant: the accusative iudicem passed through júez, still of two syllables, to the…
jugar
It is inherited from Old Spanish jogar, inherited from Latin iocor (“to jest, joke”), a verb formed on iocus (“joke, jest”). The Latin verb took the place of ludere (“to play”). The form with ⟨o⟩…
julio
1. The word for July is borrowed from Latin Iūlius (“July; of the Julian family”), the name given to the month in honour of Julius Caesar. Corominas and the BDELC treat it as taken from Latin, a…
junco
1. The word for the rush is inherited from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”); Old Spanish junco was also written yunco. It is a word in general use at all periods, and common to all the western Romance…
junio
It is borrowed from Latin Iūnius (“June”), the name of the month. Wiktionary calls it probably semi-learned. The Latin word is the adjective of Iūnō (“Juno”), the goddess, used with mēnsis (“month”)…
junto
It is inherited from Latin iūnctus (“joined, united”), the past participle of iungō (“to yoke, join”). It was long used as the irregular past participle of juntar, which is formed from it. García de…
jurar
It is inherited from Old Spanish iurar, inherited from Latin iūrō (“to swear, take an oath”). The Latin verb is formed from iūs (“law, right”). Bénaben and the DHLF explain the original sense as “to…
justicia
It is borrowed from Latin iūstitia (“justice”), a learned word. Although learned, it has been in general use at every period. García de Diego also calls it a learned word. The Latin noun is formed…
justo
It is inherited from Old Spanish justo, inherited from Latin iūstus (“just, lawful”). Corominas sees no decisive reason to call it a learned word in any Romance language except French juste, and…
juvenil
It is borrowed from Latin iuvenīlis (“youthful”), formed from iuvenis (“young”) with the suffix -īlis. The Latin noun is also the source of the semi-learned joven, which, Corominas notes, was a rare…
juzgar
It is inherited from Latin iūdicāre (“to judge”), through Old Spanish judgar. Corominas treats it under juez, its Latin base iūdex being the source of that word. Wiktionary names the borrowed…
labio
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…
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…
laborioso
It is borrowed from Latin labōriōsus (“toilsome, laborious”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is formed from labor (“work, toil”) with the suffix -ōsus; Wiktionary calls the inserted ⟨i⟩…
lado
It is inherited from Old Spanish lado, inherited from Latin latus (“side, flank”). Because the Latin word was a neuter of the third declension, its accusative was the same as its nominative, and the…
ladrón
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…
lago
It is inherited from Old Spanish lago, inherited from Latin lacus (“basin, tank; pond, lake”). The Latin word also meant any reservoir of liquid, and in that sense it gave lagar “wine press”, found…
lágrima
It is inherited from Old Spanish lágrema and lágrima, inherited from Latin lacrima (“tear”). Corominas notes that the word is found at all periods and in every Romance language: Portuguese lágrima…
lámpara
It is inherited from Old Spanish lampada, inherited from Late Latin lampada (“lamp, torch”). Christian Latin made this new nominative, frequent from about 200 AD, out of the Greek-style accusative…
lana
It is inherited from Old Spanish lana, inherited from Latin lāna (“wool”). Corominas notes that it has been in general use at all periods and is common to all the Romance languages. The same Latin…
lánguido
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin languĭdus (“faint, weakened; slack, lacking energy”). Corominas dates it from Juan de Mena in 1444 and notes that it is still missing from Alonso de…
lanzar
It is inherited from Old Spanish lançar, inherited from Late Latin lanceō (“to wield a lance”), a verb formed in Latin from lancea (“lance, light spear”). Corominas notes that the Late Latin verb is…
lardo
It is inherited from Latin lārdum (“bacon fat, lard”), the contracted form of lāridum. Corominas notes that the word survives in all the Romance languages and is more popular in Catalan and…
largo
It is inherited from Latin largus (“abundant, considerable; generous”). The modern sense “long” replaced the older luengo, from Latin longus, only at the end of the Middle Ages. The same Latin word…
lastimar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *blastemare, an altered form of blasphēmō (“to slander; to blaspheme”), which was taken from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to speak impiously; to defame”)…
lavar
It is inherited from Latin lavāre (“to wash”), Old Spanish lavar. In Old Latin the verb was also inflected in the third conjugation, in the sense “to wash something or someone”, while the…