Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 18).
miércoles
It is inherited from Latin diēs Mercuriī (“day of Mercury”), shortened to the genitive alone, “(the day) of Mercury”. The DLE starts from Vulgar Latin (diēs) Mercŭris, an altered form of the…
mierda
It is inherited from Old Spanish mierda, inherited from Latin merda (“dung, excrement”). Latin had a short vowel, ⟨ĕ⟩, and Spanish has the diphthong ⟨ie⟩ where the neighbouring languages keep ⟨e⟩…
mil
It is inherited from Latin mīlle (“thousand”); Old Spanish mil also had the form mill. It has the same form in Portuguese mil, Catalan mil, Asturian mil and Aragonese mil, and the same Latin word is…
milagro
It is inherited from Old Spanish miraglo, inherited from Latin mīrāculum (“wonder, marvel”), a semi-learned word. The regular Spanish outcome of the Latin cluster /kl/ is a jota, as in ojo from…
militar
1. The word for “to serve as a soldier” is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin mīlitāre (“to serve as a soldier”). Corominas dates it to 1490, and its present participle militante to about…
milla
It continues inherited from Latin mīlia (“thousands, Roman miles”), short for mīlia passuum (“thousands of paces”), the plural of mīlle (“thousand”) in mīlle passus (“a thousand paces”), the Roman…
mínimo
It is borrowed from Latin minimus (“smallest, least”), the superlative that goes with the comparative minor (“smaller”). Bénaben notes that it served as the superlative of parvus (“small”), whose…
ministro
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin minister (“servant, attendant; subordinate”). The inherited word from the same family is menester, from ministerium (“service, office”), of which…
mío
It is inherited from Latin meus (“my, mine”); the Old Spanish form was mio. Gómez de Silva traces it through a form *mieo from the Latin accusative. Old Spanish texts also write myo and meo, and in…
mirar
It is inherited from Old Spanish mirar, inherited from Latin mīror (“to wonder at, admire”). The Portuguese and Spanish verbs continue the active form mirāre, which replaced the deponent. The same…
mirra
It is borrowed from Latin myrrha, which is from Ancient Greek μύρρα (múrrha, “myrrh”). Latin also wrote the word murra. The same word is Catalan mirra, Portuguese mirra, Italian mirra and French…
misa
It is a learned borrowing borrowed from Late Latin missa (“dismissal; mass”), recorded from the 4th century. The Latin word is the feminine past participle of Latin mittō (“to let go, send”), used…
mísero
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin miser (“wretched, unfortunate”). The Latin adjective was inherited in only a few old Romance forms, among them Aromanian measer and Old French mezre…
misión
It is borrowed from Latin missio (“a sending”), a learned word that Corominas dates to 1220–1250. The Latin noun is formed from mittō (“to let go, send”) with the suffix -tiō. The Latin verb is also…
mismo
It is inherited from Old Spanish mesmo, inherited from Vulgar Latin *metipsimus. The Vulgar Latin form, also given as *medipsimus, joins the emphatic particle -met, which Latin added to personal…
místico
It is borrowed from Latin mysticus (“of the sacred mysteries”), from Ancient Greek μυστικός (mustikós, “connected with the mysteries”). The BDELC and VOX take it directly from the Greek word, which…
mitad
It is inherited from Old Spanish meitad, inherited from Late Latin medietās (“middle; half”). Corominas explains the kept ⟨t⟩ as a semi-learned treatment, because the word was used so often in…
mitigar
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin mītigō (“to make soft or mellow; to soothe”). The Latin verb is formed from mītis (“sweet and juicy, soft, gentle”) with the suffix -igō, which goes…
moderador
The DLE gives it as borrowed from Latin moderātor (“one who guides, governs or directs”), while Corominas lists it among the derivatives of moderar (1444). The Latin noun is formed from moderor (“to…
modernidad
It is formed from Spanish moderno + -idad. Corominas lists it among the derivatives of moderno (1433), which is from Latin modernus. The Latin adjective is built on modo (“just now”) with the suffix…
modernismo
It is formed from Spanish moderno + -ismo. Corominas dates it to 1899, the same year as modernista. The base moderno is from Late Latin modernus, a derivative of modo (“just now”).
modo
It is borrowed from Latin modus (“measure; manner”), taken in the 15th century. The inherited form was Old Spanish muedo, which did not survive. Wiktionary instead derives the modern word from the…
modulación
It is borrowed from Latin modulātiō (“rhythmical measure, melody”). The DLE, Wiktionary and Segura derive it straight from the Latin noun; Corominas lists it under modo with a date of about 1440…
modular
1. The word for “to modulate” is borrowed from Latin modulārī (“to regulate sounds, to set to rhythm”). Vox calls it a 15th-century borrowing, and Corominas dates it to about 1450, but the CDH and…
mojar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *molliāre (“to soften”), a verb formed on Latin mollis (“soft”). Walde and Hofmann report the Vulgar Latin verb as recorded, and the Tironian notes have the…
molino
It is inherited from Old Spanish molino, inherited from Late Latin molīnum (“mill”). The Late Latin noun is the neuter of the adjective molīnus (“of a mill”) used as a noun, or a shortening of saxum…
momento
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin mōmentum (“movement, impulse; short space of time”). Vox dates the borrowing to the 15th century. Corominas lists it among the derivatives of mover, with…
monarquía
It is borrowed from Late Latin monarchia (“sole rule, monarchy”), which is from Ancient Greek μοναρχία (monarkhía). The Late Latin noun is a post-classical loan from Greek, used for the rule of one…
monasterio
It is borrowed from Late Latin monasterium, which is from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “hermit's cell; monastery”). García de Diego calls the Spanish word a learned one. The Greek noun…
moneda
It is inherited from Old Spanish moneda, inherited from Latin monēta (“mint; coin, money”). The Latin noun was first a title of Juno, then the name of her temple, where the mint was set up, then the…
monstruo
It is borrowed from Late Latin monstruum, an alteration of Latin monstrum (“portent, prodigy; monster”). Corominas explains the ⟨u⟩ by the influence of monstruōsus (“monstrous”), at a time when…
montaña
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *montanea (“mountainous country”), Old Spanish montanna. The Latin form is the neuter plural of an adjective *montaneus, which also underlies the montaniosus of the…
moral
1. The word for “moral; morals” is inherited from Old Spanish moral, borrowed from Latin mōrālis (“relating to manners or morals”), a learned word. Cicero formed the Latin adjective from mōs…
morder
It is inherited from Old Spanish morder, inherited from Latin mordeō (“to bite”). The same verb is Portuguese morder, Catalan morder, Occitan morder, French mordre and Italian mordere. Corominas…
morir
It is inherited from Old Spanish morir, inherited from Vulgar Latin morīre, from the classical deponent Latin morī (“to die”). Beside the classical form, of the third conjugation, archaic and vulgar…
mosca
It is inherited from Latin musca (“fly”). It has been in general use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages. The same Latin word is Portuguese mosca, Galician mosca, Catalan…
mosquito
As the Academy's dictionary explains it, it is formed from Spanish mosco + -ito as a diminutive, the noun mosco meaning “mosquito” and being itself formed from mosca (“fly”). Wiktionary forms it…
mostrar
It is inherited from Latin mōnstrāre (“to show, point out; advise”). The word is found in every period and in all the Romance languages: Portuguese mostrar, Galician mostrar, Catalan mostrar, French…
motivo
It is borrowed from Late Latin motīvus (“relating to movement”), a learned word of the 15th century. In Medieval Latin the adjective meant “moving, prompting”, and its neuter motivum was used as a…
motor
It is borrowed from Latin motor (“one who moves”), an agent noun of moveō (“to move”) with the suffix -tor. The Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a purely Latin word, and Corominas lists it among…
mover
It is inherited from Old Spanish mover, inherited from Latin moveō (“to move”). The word has been in use in every period and is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese mover…
mucho
It is inherited from Latin multus (“much, many”). The oldest Spanish form was muito, which was shared with Portuguese and still appears in the Glosas Emilianenses. Bénaben sets out the chain from…
mueble
It is inherited from Old Spanish moeble, inherited from Latin mōbilis (“movable”). Corominas explains the stressed /ue/, where Latin had a long /oː/, by the influence of the stressed forms of the…
muerte
It is inherited from Latin mors (“death”). The noun belongs to the family of morir, with muerto and the learned mortal. The same Latin word is Portuguese morte, Galician morte, Asturian muerte…
muerto
It is inherited from Latin mortuus (“dead”) (Vulgar Latin *mortus), the past participle of morior (“to die”). In Spanish it remains the participle of morir, and is also the adjective and the noun…
muestra
It is a deverbal noun from Spanish mostrar (“to show”). mostrar is from Latin mōnstrō (“to show, point out”), from mōnstrum (“portent”), which is formed from Latin moneō (“to warn, remind”) + -trum…
mujer
It is inherited from Old Spanish mugier, inherited from Latin mulier (“woman; wife”). In Vulgar Latin the word was stressed on the second ⟨e⟩, muliére, unlike the classical stress on the first…
multiplicación
It is borrowed from Latin multiplicātiō (“increase; multiplication”). Corominas records it in Nebrija, and DICCA and the corpus show that it is much older, from the astronomical works of Alfonso X…
multiplicar
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin multiplicō (“to increase, multiply”), The Latin verb is formed from multiplex (“manifold, of many folds”). That adjective combines multus (“much, many”)…
mundo
It is inherited from Old Spanish mundo, inherited from Latin mundus (“world”), kept in a semi-learned form. A fully popular development would have given mondo, which Corominas finds in the Auto de…
municipalidad
It is formed from Spanish municipal + -idad. Its base municipal, first recorded in the Diccionario de Autoridades, is from Latin municipalis, from municipium (“a self-governing town”), a compound of…
mural
It is borrowed from Latin murālis (“of a wall”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is formed mūrus (“wall”) with the suffix -ālis. Wiktionary also allows a Spanish formation from muro with -al…
muro
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…
música
It is borrowed from Latin mūsica (“music”), a learned borrowing, from Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ), short for μουσικὴ τέχνη (mousikḕ tékhnē, “the art of the Muses”). The Greek adjective μουσικός…
mutuo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin mūtuus (“lent; reciprocal”). Corominas treats it with the learned family of mudar, the inherited descendant of mūtō (“to change, exchange”). The adjective…
muy
It continues inherited from Old Spanish muito (“much”), shortened before adjectives and adverbs; the Old Spanish word is inherited from Latin multum (“much”), the adverbial neuter of multus (“much…
nacer
It is inherited from Old Spanish nasçer, inherited from Late Latin nascere (“to be born”), the active form that Late Latin made of the classical deponent nāscor. The same verb is Portuguese nascer…
nación
It is borrowed from Latin nātiō (“birth; breed, race; people, nation”), a learned word. Corominas gives its first record as 1444, and Vox dates the borrowing to the 15th century, but the CDH has it…
nada
It is inherited from Old Spanish nada, inherited from Latin nāta (“born”), the feminine past participle of nāscor (“to be born”). The participle stood in the phrase rēs nāta (“a thing born”), Old…
nardo
It is borrowed from Latin nardus (“nard”), from Ancient Greek νάρδος (nárdos). It is a learned word. Beekes takes the Greek word from Phoenician, comparing Biblical Hebrew נרד (nērd), Aramaic נרדא…