Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 22).
persuasivo
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin persuāsīvus (“persuasive”), according to the Academy's current dictionary. Wiktionary also derives it from Latin. The 2001 edition and Moliner derive it from…
perversión
It is borrowed from Latin perversiō (“a turning about, inversion”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from pervertō (“to overturn, upset”) with the suffix -tiō. Corominas lists the Spanish…
perverso
It is borrowed from Latin perversus (“turned the wrong way; perverse, wicked”). The Latin adjective is the past participle of pervertō (“to overturn, corrupt”), formed with the intensive per- and…
pesar
It is inherited from Old Spanish pesar, inherited from Latin pēnsō (“to weigh”), the intensive of pendō (“to weigh; to hang”). The noun pesar “grief” is the infinitive used as a noun, already in the…
pescador
It is inherited from Latin piscātor (“fisherman”); Old Spanish already had pescador. The noun is formed from Latin piscor (“to fish”) + -tor, and the verb comes from piscis (“fish”). Corominas…
pescar
It continues inherited from Latin piscor (“to fish”), or rather the active form *piscare of this deponent verb. The same verb is Portuguese pescar, Galician pescar, Catalan pescar, Occitan pescar…
pésimo
It is borrowed from Latin pessimus (“worst, very bad”), the Latin superlative that went with the comparative pēior (“worse”) and served as the superlative of malus (“bad”). Corominas treats it among…
peso
It is inherited from Old Spanish peso, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pēsum, from Latin pēnsum (“a quantity of wool to be spun; weight”). In Latin the word named the weight of wool given to a slave to…
pestilencia
It is borrowed from Latin pestilentia (“epidemic, plague”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from the adjective pestilēns (“infected, unhealthy”) with the suffix -ia, and that adjective…
pez
1. The word for the fish is inherited from Old Spanish pez, inherited from Latin piscis (“fish”). The same word is Portuguese peixe, Galician peixe, Asturian pexe, Catalan peix, Occitan peis…
picar
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *piccāre (“to strike with a point”), a verb common to all the Romance languages of the West, of expressive or onomatopoeic origin. The same verb is…
pico
It is inherited from Latin beccus (“beak”), a Gaulish word that Suetonius explains as “a cock's beak”. The older bico took its /p/ from the verb picar “to peck”. Corominas shows that the noun is not…
pie
It is inherited from Old Spanish pie, inherited from Latin pes (“foot”). The stressed short /e/ became the diphthong /je/ and the /d/ between vowels was lost, which gave the regular Old Spanish…
piedad
It is inherited from Old Spanish piedat, inherited from Latin pietās (“dutiful respect; piety; pity”). The variant piadad, very frequent throughout the Middle Ages, is the source of piadoso. The…
piedra
It is inherited from Latin petra (“rock, stone”), Old Spanish piedra. Latin had borrowed the word from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”). The Greek loan occurs in the earliest Latin writers, but…
piel
It is inherited from Latin pellis (“skin, hide”), and Old Spanish had pielle beside piel. The Latin vowel was a short /e/. In the popular Latin of the Empire the word, first the skin of an animal…
pierna
It continues inherited from Latin perna (“leg with the thigh; ham”). In Latin the word named the whole hind limb, properly of animals, and tended to be specialised for the pig, so that in vulgar…
pieza
It is inherited from Old Spanish pieça, inherited from Late Latin pettia (“piece”), which is from Gaulish *pettyā. Thurneysen showed that the word goes back to a Celtic form kept in the insular…
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…
pilar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pīlāre (“pillar”), formed on Latin pīla (“pillar, column”). The Academy's dictionary derives it from pila in the sense “heap”. Corominas notes that Castilian…
píldora
It continues, by a semi-learned route, inherited from Latin pillula (“little ball; pill”), a variant of pilula. The Academy's current dictionary gives the classical form, with a single /l/, as the…
pino
It is inherited from Latin pīnus (“pine tree”). Corominas notes that the word is common to all the Romance languages except Portuguese, which calls the tree pinheiro and keeps pinho for pine wood or…
pintar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctāre, a verb formed on *pinctus, the Vulgar Latin participle of Latin pingō (“to paint”), whose classical participle is pictus (“painted”). The nasal of the…
pinto
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctus (“painted”), the participle that Vulgar Latin formed for the verb pingō (“to paint”), in place of the classical participle pictus. The ⟨n⟩ was taken…
pintura
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctūra, an alteration of Latin pictūra (“painting”) after *pinctus, the popular form of the past participle of pingō (“to paint”). The vulgar participle kept the…
pisar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin pinsāre (“to pound, crush”), a first-conjugation variant of the classical third-conjugation verb “to beat, pound, crush”. Corominas notes that this variant, and a…
placer
It is inherited from Latin placeō (“to please”). The noun placer “pleasure” is the infinitive used as a noun, already in the 12th century. The same Latin verb is Portuguese prazer, Galician pracer…
plácido
It is borrowed from Latin placidus (“gentle, calm, peaceful”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is formed from the verb placeō (“to be pleasing”) with the suffix -idus; its first sense in Latin…
planeta
It is borrowed from Latin planēta (“planet”), from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer”), a derivative of πλανάω (planáō, “to wander”). The planets were named “wanderers” in contrast with…
plantación
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin plantātiō (“planting, propagation”). Corominas lists it among the derivatives of plantar, which he dates to 1148, without a date of its own. The Latin noun…
plantar
It is inherited from Latin plantō (“to plant”), a semi-learned word. Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing. The inherited form llantar is not unknown: Corominas finds it in a Castilian translation…
plata
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *platta (“metal plate”), the feminine of *plattus (“flat”), which was used as a noun in Late Latin from the 10th century for a sheet, usually of metal, and…
plato
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat, flattened”), an adjective used as a noun, which is from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat”). Corominas treats the word with chato…
playa
It is inherited from Late Latin plagia (“shore, beach”), a word Isidore of Seville already used in this sense. Corominas derives the Late Latin word, probably, from Ancient Greek πλάγια (plágia…
plaza
It is inherited from Old Spanish plaça, inherited from Vulgar Latin *plattĕa (“broad street, square”), the popular form of Latin platea. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa, “broad…
plenario
It is borrowed from Late Latin plenarius (“full, complete”), a learned word. The Late Latin adjective is formed from plēnus (“full”) with the suffix -ārius. In Medieval Latin it meant “entire…
plomo
It continues inherited from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The same Latin word is Portuguese chumbo, Galician chumbo, Asturian chombu, Aragonese plomo, Catalan plom, Occitan plom, French plomb, Italian…
pluma
It is inherited from Latin plūma (“feather, down”), recorded in Spanish from a charter of 1195. The word keeps the Latin cluster /pl/, which in inherited words normally became /ʎ/ (⟨ll⟩). A popular…
plumaje
It is formed from Spanish pluma + -aje. pluma is from Latin plūma (“feather, down”). The same formation is Catalan plomatge, French plumage and Italian piumaggio.
pobre
It is inherited from Latin pauper (“poor”). Castilian and Portuguese continue the classical accusative, with one form for both genders, while the other western Romance languages start from the Late…
poco
It is inherited from Latin paucus (“few, small in number”); Old Spanish poco has the same form from the earliest texts. The same Latin word is Portuguese pouco, Galician pouco, Asturian pocu…
poder
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *potēre, the regular infinitive that spoken Latin built in place of classical Latin posse (“to be able”). The DLE says the new infinitive was made on those forms of…
polea
It probably continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *polidia, a neuter plural taken as a feminine singular, of a *polidium borrowed from a Late Greek *πολίδιον (*polídion, “little pivot”), the…
pólipo
It is borrowed from Latin polypus (“octopus; nasal polyp”), a learned word. Latin borrowed it early from Ancient Greek πολύπους (polúpous), literally “many-footed”, formed from πολύς (polús, “many”)…
político
It is borrowed from Latin polīticus (“relating to civil government, political”), a Latin borrowing of Ancient Greek πολιτικός (politikós, “of or relating to citizens; of the State”). The Greek…
pollo
It is inherited from Latin pullus (“young of an animal; chicken”). The Latin noun first meant the young of any animal, and was also used as an adjective, “very small”; this explains why the feminine…
polvo
It is inherited from Old Spanish polvos, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pulvus (“dust”), a neuter remodelling of pulvis (“dust”), which in classical Latin was usually masculine and more rarely…
pompa
1. The word for pomp is borrowed from Latin pompa (“procession, retinue; pageantry”), which is from Ancient Greek πομπή (pompḗ, “sending; escort; procession”), a noun of πέμπω (pémpō, “to send”)…
pomposo
It is borrowed from Late Latin pompōsus (“stately, solemn”), formed from Latin pompa (“procession; pomp”) with the suffix -ōsus. The Latin adjective is post-classical, and in Medieval Latin it also…
poner
It is inherited from Latin pōnō (“to put, place”). The Latin verb comes from *pozinō, a compound of the prefix po- (“off, away”) and sinō (“to let, put in place”). Its old perfect was that of the…
ponzoña
It is inherited from Old Spanish pozón, inherited from Latin pōtiō (“a drink, draught; a poisoned draught”), with its present form reshaped by the verb emponzoñar or ponzoñar “to poison”. Corominas…
popa
It is inherited from Old Spanish popa, inherited from Vulgar Latin *puppa, from Latin puppis (“stern of a ship”). The Romance forms all end in -a: Corominas explains this by the feminine gender of…
populoso
It is borrowed from Latin populōsus (“full of people”), a post-classical adjective formed from populus (“people”) with the suffix -ōsus. Corominas lists it among the learned words in his article on…
por
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin por, an alteration of classical prō (“for, on behalf of”). The DLE derives it from prō influenced by per (“through”), as Moliner does, and García de Diego and…
porcino
It is inherited from Latin porcīnus (“of a pig”), the adjective of porcus (“male pig”), formed with the suffix -īnus. Corominas lists it under puerco, the noun inherited from the same Latin word…
poro
It is borrowed from Late Latin porus (“passage, channel in the body”), which is from Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “passage, way; pore”). The Greek noun has the o-grade of πείρω (peírō, “to pierce…
portar
It is borrowed from Latin portō (“to carry, convey”), but Corominas calls it a foreign word that Spanish took at several periods, from Latin as well as the neighbouring Romance languages: Catalan…
portento
It is borrowed from Latin portentum (“omen; monster, prodigy”), a learned word. The DLE and Moliner give the source as the participle portentus. The Latin noun is the neuter of the past participle…
portero
It is inherited from Old Spanish portero, inherited from Late Latin portārius (“doorkeeper”). The Latin word is formed from porta (“gate”) with the suffix -ārius; in Spanish terms it is puerta with…
pórtico
It is borrowed from Latin porticus (“covered walk, colonnade”), a learned word. The Latin word is derived from porta (“gate”), so it belongs to the family of Spanish puerta. Its fourth-declension…