Spanish words from Latin
355 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 2).
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…
condición
It is borrowed from Latin condiciō (“stipulation; state, manner of being”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from condīcō (“to agree upon, to fix”) with -iō, from con- (“with”) and dīcō (“to…
conducir
It is borrowed from Latin condūcō (“to lead or bring together”), a learned word. The Latin verb is made of con- (“together”) and dūcō (“to lead”). The only popular descendant of the Latin verb in…
confesar
It is borrowed from Late Latin confesso (“to confess”), a verb made from confessus (“having admitted”), the past participle of confiteor (“to admit, acknowledge”). Corominas calls the Low Latin verb…
confundir
It is inherited from Old Spanish cofonder, inherited from Latin cōnfundō (“to pour together, mix; to confuse”). Corominas treats the Cid's form, confonder in Berceo and the modern form, first found…
conocer
It is inherited from Late Latin conōscō (“to get to know”), the form that Latin cognōscō took under the influence of the simple verb nōscō. The form without ⟨g⟩ is already found in texts of the…
considerar
It is borrowed from Latin cōnsīderō (“to examine attentively”), a learned word. The same Latin verb gave popular forms elsewhere: Catalan consirar, Aragonese cosirar, Old Galician-Portuguese…
construir
It is borrowed from Latin cōnstruō (“to heap up; to build”), formed from con- (“together”) and struō (“to pile up, arrange, build”). The Latin verb meant first “to pile up” and then “to build”. The…
contener
It is inherited from Latin contineō (“to hold together; to contain”), which Corominas records first in the Fuero Juzgo of 1240. Vox calls it a popular word, from the sense “to keep together”, which…
continuar
It is borrowed from Latin continuō (“to join together; to go on with”), a learned word. That verb is from Latin continuus (“adjacent, uninterrupted”), from contineō (“to hold together”), which is…
contra
It is inherited from Latin contrā (“opposite, against”). As a preposition the word was mostly unstressed, so its vowel was treated as unstressed; but Latin's adverbial use survived in part, and with…
contrario
It is borrowed from Latin contrārius (“opposite; hostile”). The variant contrallo goes back to a dissimilated form of the Latin word. The Latin word gave French contraire, Old Occitan contrari and…
correr
It is inherited from Old Spanish correr, inherited from Latin currere (“to run”). The same Latin verb is Portuguese correr, Catalan córrer, French courir, Italian correre and Romanian curge. The…
cosa
It is inherited from Latin causa (“cause, reason; matter, question”), and Old Spanish cosa has the same form. In Vulgar Latin the word, starting from the sense “matter, affair”, became a synonym of…
costar
It is inherited from Old Spanish costar, inherited from Latin constō (“to stand firm; to consist of; to cost”). A Latin document of 1099 already has the spelling ⟨custare⟩. The Latin verb meant “to…
crear
It is borrowed from Latin creō (“to bring forth, produce”), a learned form beside criar, which continues the same Latin verb by the popular route. As a popular word the verb survives only in the…
crecer
It is inherited from Old Spanish cresçer, inherited from Latin crēscō (“to come into being; to grow”). The same Latin verb is Portuguese crescer, Galician crecer, Asturian crecer, Catalan créixer…
criar
It is inherited from Latin creō (“to create; to beget”), a verb that in Latin could already mean “to give birth, engender” in Horace and Ovid. As a popular word it seems to survive only in the three…
crimen
It is borrowed from Latin crīmen (“accusation; crime”), a learned word. In Latin it meant first a charge or accusation, and in the late period a fault or offence. Bénaben describes the change as the…
criminal
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Late Latin criminālis (“of crime”). The CDH and the Tentative Dictionary have it first in the Cantar de mio Cid. Corominas lists Berceo, and the BDELC dates…
cuadrilla
It is formed from Spanish cuadro + -illa, a diminutive of the noun for a square. Corominas lists it among the derivatives of that noun and dates it to the second half of the 13th century; the Breve…
cuando
It is inherited from Latin quandō (“when”); Old Spanish quando is recorded from the 10th century. The Latin word was both temporal, “when”, and causal, “since”, and replaced cum in these uses. The…
cuarto
It is inherited from Latin quartus (“fourth”), the ordinal of quattuor (“four”). The Old Spanish spelling was quarto. Corominas explains the noun “room” through the use of cuatro for a small, vague…
cuatro
It is inherited from Latin quattŭor (“four”), through Old Spanish quatro. The DCECH notes that the only correct Latin form had ⟨tt⟩. Gómez de Silva gives the Vulgar Latin forms quatro and quattor…
cuchillo
It is inherited from Latin cultellus (“small knife”), a diminutive of culter (“knife; ploughshare”), and its Old Spanish form was cuchiello. The same Latin word is Portuguese cutelo (older coitelo)…
cuerda
It is inherited from Latin chorda (“string of a musical instrument; rope, cord”), which is from Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “gut, tripe; string made of gut”). The word means “rope, cord” in all the…
cuerpo
It is inherited from Old Spanish cuerpo, inherited from Latin corpus (“body”). Latin corpus was neuter and should first have given a singular ending in -s, with a plural from corpora; this is what…
cumplir
It is inherited from Latin compleō (“to fill, complete”); the Old Spanish forms were cumplir and complir. Wiktionary sets up a Vulgar Latin *complīre, with a change of conjugation to the ⟨-ir⟩…
dar
It is inherited from Old Spanish dar, inherited from Latin dare (“to give”). Corominas doubts that the modern first person ⟨doy⟩ grew out of the old diphthong of dou. He suggests rather that the…
de
It is inherited from Old Spanish de, inherited from Latin dē (“from, down from; about”). In Latin the particle marked origin, moving away and separation, and as a prefix it formed verbs of privation…
deber
It is inherited from Latin dēbeō (“to owe, be under an obligation”) (infinitive ⟨dēbēre⟩); it is spelt Old Spanish dever in the oldest texts. The noun meaning “duty” is the infinitive used as a…
decidir
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…
dejar
It is inherited from Old Spanish dexar, an alteration of the older lexar, which is inherited from Latin laxō (“to widen; to loosen, slacken”), a derivative of laxus (“loose, slack”). After Tailhan's…
derecho
It is inherited from Old Spanish derecho, inherited from Vulgar Latin dērēctus (“straight, direct”), the popular form of Latin dīrēctus, the past participle of dīrigō (“to direct”), itself formed…
descubrir
It is inherited from Late Latin discooperīre (“to uncover”), found in Saint Jerome. The Latin verb is made of dis- and cooperiō (“to cover completely”), the source of cubrir, which is derived from…
deuda
It is inherited from Old Spanish debda, inherited from Latin dēbita (“things owed”), the neuter plural of dēbitum (“debt”), taken as a feminine singular. The Latin noun is the past participle of…
diestro
It is inherited from Old Spanish diestro, inherited from Latin dexter (“right, on the right-hand side; skilful”). The feminine continues dextra (“right hand”). Corominas cites the Latin word both in…
difícil
It is borrowed from Latin difficilis (“hard to do; hard to deal with”), a learned word. Vox dates the borrowing to the 15th century. The Spanish nouns and verbs dificultad and dificultar were taken…
dinero
It is inherited from Old Spanish dinero, inherited from Vulgar Latin *dīnārius, a form of Latin dēnārius (“a silver coin first worth ten asses”). The Latin noun is the adjective “containing ten”…
dirigir
It is borrowed from Latin dīrigō (“to set in a line; to direct”), a learned word. Corominas dates it to the 15th century, after Cuervo; the CDH has it in Aragonese prose from 1385. The Latin verb is…
divertir
It is a learned borrowed from Latin dīvertō (“to turn aside, separate”). The DLE glosses the Latin verb as “to lead different ways”, and Corominas as “to turn away”, whence “to distract oneself”…
documento
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin documentum (“teaching; example; proof”). The Latin noun is formed doceō (“to teach”) + -mentum. In Medieval Latin it had come to mean also written…
don
1. The word for the gift is inherited from Latin dōnum (“gift, present”), as the DLE, the BDELC, García de Diego and Wiktionary give it. Corominas, in the DCECH, sees the word rather as a noun from…
dormir
It is inherited from Latin dormiō (“to sleep”); Old Spanish dormir has the same form. The same Latin verb is Portuguese dormir, Catalan dormir, Occitan dormir, French dormir and Italian dormire. A…
dos
It is inherited from Old Spanish dos, inherited from Latin duōs (“two”), the accusative form: as usual, Romance generalised the Latin accusative. The /u/ was pronounced as a close /o/ in late Vulgar…
dudar
It is inherited from Old Spanish dubdar, inherited from Latin dubitō (“to waver, to doubt”), taken over at an early date. The Latin verb comes from dubius (“wavering, doubtful”), itself from duo…
edificio
It is borrowed from Latin aedificium (“building”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from aedificō (“to build”) with the suffix -ium. The verb, which Spanish borrowed as edificar, is a…
ejército
It is inherited from Old Spanish exército, borrowed from Latin exercitus (“physical exercise; army”), a learned word. The DCECH explains the Latin noun as properly “a body of men trained for war”…
el
It is inherited from Latin ille (“that”) or its accusative, a demonstrative that in Late Latin was already used in popular speech as a mere article, with the sound changes of an unstressed word. The…
en
It is inherited from Latin in (“in, into”), already Old Spanish en. Corominas leaves its history to the grammars. Latin in, written en in the Duenos inscription, goes back to Proto-Italic *en and…
entero
It is inherited from Latin integer (“untouched, intact, whole”), in the Vulgar Latin pronunciation intēgrum with the stress on the second syllable. Since Latin /ɡr/ between vowels normally gave…
entrar
It is inherited from Old Spanish entrar, inherited from Latin intrāre (“to enter”). The Glosas Silenses still have the Latin-looking spelling ⟨intrato⟩. The Latin verb is formed from intrā…
esclavo
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), which is from Byzantine Greek σκλάβος (sklábos, “Slav; slave”). Corominas thinks the word reached Castilian indirectly, most likely through…
ese
It is inherited from Latin ipse (“himself, the same”). The regular outcome was Old Spanish es, used in the Cid, the Libro de Alexandre and Berceo; it was replaced by ese on the model of este. Berceo…
especial
It is borrowed from Latin speciālis (“particular, special”). The Latin adjective is formed from speciēs (“kind, type; appearance”) with the suffix -ālis, and DICCA-XV traces the noun to speciō (“to…
especie
It is borrowed from Latin species (“sight, appearance; type, kind; goods”). Corominas's first records are of the 15th century, from the Corbacho (1438), Juan de Mena and Santillana on. The CDH has…