Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 25).
que
It is inherited from Latin quid (“what?”) in most of its uses, but the Spanish particle gathers several Latin relative words and particles that merged into one form. As a conjunction it continues…
quebrar
It is inherited from Old Spanish crebar, inherited from Latin crepō (“to crack, creak, burst”). The Old Spanish form took its modern shape by metathesis of the /r/. In Late Latin the verb already…
quemar
It is inherited from Old Spanish quemar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *caimāre, which Corominas explains as a change of cremō (“to burn”) under the influence of the late Greek medical term κάϊμα…
querer
It is inherited from Latin quaerō (“to seek, ask for”); Old Spanish querer has the same form. The change from “to seek, ask for” to “to want” is found only in Castilian, Portuguese querer, Galician…
queso
It is inherited from Old Spanish queso, inherited from Latin cāseus (“cheese”). Lanchetas gives the stages ⟨caseum⟩, ⟨caseo⟩, ⟨caiso⟩, ⟨ceiso⟩, ⟨ceeso⟩ and ⟨queso⟩, and compares beso from basium…
quién
It is inherited from Latin quem (“whom”), the accusative of the interrogative pronoun, used as a stressed word. Wiktionary takes it from the accusative of the relative quī. The unstressed relative…
quince
It is inherited from Old Spanish quinze, inherited from Latin quīndecim (“fifteen”). The Latin numeral is a compound of quīnque (“five”) and decem (“ten”). The Latin word for five goes back to…
quitar
Corominas and Pascual take it as semi-learned, inherited from Latin quiētus (“at rest, calm; free from war”), whose sense in legal and religious language was “released from a debt or obligation”…
rabia
It is inherited from Late Latin rabia, the popular form of Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness”). The spelling with ⟨v⟩ in the medieval texts shows that the word developed as a popular, not a learned…
racimo
It is inherited from Late Latin racīmus, a variant of Latin racēmus (“bunch, cluster of grapes”). The form with /i/ is already found in Gregory the Great in the second half of the 6th century and in…
ración
It is borrowed from Latin ratio (“calculation, account”), the learned doublet of razón, which is the popular outcome of the same Latin word. From “account, reckoning” the learned form passed to…
radiante
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin radiāns (“shining, radiant”), the present participle of radiō (“to emit rays, shine”). The Latin verb is derived from radius (“rod; ray of light”)…
raíz
It is inherited from Old Spanish rayz, inherited from Latin rādīx (“root”). Berceo uses the modern form but in one poem still the older form radiz. The Latin word is inherited by all the Western…
ramo
It continues inherited from Latin rāmus (“branch, bough”). The same Latin word is Portuguese ramo, Galician ramo, Catalan ram, Occitan ram, Old French raim, Italian ramo and Romanian ram. Beside it…
rana
It is inherited from Latin rāna (“frog”). The same word is Portuguese rã, Galician ra, Asturian rana, Old French raine and Italian rana. Old Portuguese had raa and arraa. It was inherited by all the…
rapaz
It is inherited from Latin rapāx (“grasping, rapacious”) in the view of most sources, probably taken over in a semi-learned form that kept the Latin /p/. Corominas holds that the noun, which in the…
raridad
It is borrowed from Latin rārĭtās (“looseness of texture; rarity”). The Spanish Wiktionary analyses it instead as from Spanish raro + -idad. Corominas lists it among the derivatives of raro, beside…
raro
It is borrowed from Latin rārus (“loose, thin; few; infrequent”), a learned word. The inherited form of the same Latin word is ralo “sparse, thin”, a dissimilated variant recorded from 1335. The two…
rascar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rāsicāre (“to scrape”). The Old Spanish form was rascar. The Vulgar Latin verb is formed on rāsus (“scraped, shaven”), the past participle of rādō (“to scrape…
rastro
It is inherited from Latin rastrum (“drag-hoe, rake”). The sense moved from the rake to the marks it leaves on the ground. From these it passed to any track or trail. The same Latin word is…
rata
It continues a Romance type inherited from Vulgar Latin *ratta, beside the masculine *rattus, which is found in every Romance area except Romania. Wiktionary derives the Vulgar Latin word from…
rato
It is probably inherited from Latin raptus (“a snatching, abduction”), through the senses “jerk, sudden pull” and, figuratively, “instant”. The etymology goes back to Covarrubias and was accepted by…
raya
1. The word for a line is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *radia, derived from Latin radius (“spoke of a wheel; ray of light”), from the straight shape of both. The DLE calls this etymon Low…
rayo
It is inherited from Latin radius (“rod; spoke of a wheel; ray of light”). The learned doublet radio is recorded from the early 18th century. De Vaan thinks a link with rādīx (“root”) unlikely…
razón
It is inherited from Latin ratio (“calculation, account; reasoning, reason”), through Old Spanish razon. The Latin noun is derived from ratus (“counted, fixed”), the past participle of reor (“to…
reacción
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin reāctiō, a term of scholastic philosophy, which Gómez de Silva calls modern Latin. The Academy in 1899 and García de Diego analyse it instead as from Spanish re- +…
realidad
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin reālitās, formed from Late Latin reālis (“real, actual”) with the suffix -tās. That adjective is from Latin rēs (“thing”), whose plural meant “things, reality…
receptivo
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin receptivus (“receptive”), formed on receptus (“received”), the past participle of recipiō (“to receive”), with the suffix -īvus. Earlier editions of the Academy's…
recibir
It is inherited from Old Spanish recebir, inherited from Latin recipiō (“to take back, receive”). Corominas glosses the Latin verb as “to take, seize” and “to receive”. Henríquez Ureña considers the…
recitar
It is borrowed from Latin recitō (“to read aloud; to cite; to say from memory”), a learned word. The Latin verb is formed from re- (“again”) and citō (“to set in motion, summon”), the frequentative…
reclamar
It is borrowed from Latin reclāmō (“to cry out against, protest; to call repeatedly”), a compound of re- (“back, again”) and clāmō (“to shout, call”). Corominas lists it among the learned words of…
reclinar
It is borrowed from Latin reclīnō (“to lean back, recline”). Corominas dates it to the mid-15th century; the CDH has earlier records in the translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia. The same Latin…
recoger
It is inherited from Latin recolligō (“to gather up again, collect”). The Latin verb is formed from re- (“again”) and colligō (“to gather together”), the source of coger, which in turn contains legō…
reconciliar
It is borrowed from Latin reconcilio (“to bring back into friendship, reconcile”). Corominas lists it under concejo, with conciliar, the verb taken from Latin concilio (“to unite, associate”)…
recóndito
It is borrowed from Latin reconditus (“hidden away, secret”), the past participle of recondō (“to put away, hide”). Corominas dates it to the 17th century, from Lope de Vega, and treats it under…
reconocer
It is inherited from Latin recognōscō (“to recall; to examine, review”), in a Vulgar Latin form *reconōscō remade, like conocer from *conōscō, on the simple verb nōscō. Corominas and DICCA-XV treat…
recordar
It is inherited from Latin recordor (“to call to mind, remember”); Old Spanish recordar has the same form. The Spanish verb is a popular word, not a learned borrowing. The same Latin verb is…
recorrer
It is inherited from Latin recurrō (“to run back, hurry back”), formed re- (“back”) + currō (“to run”). García de Diego counts it as the popular outcome of the Latin verb, while recurrir “to have…
rectitud
It is borrowed from Late Latin rēctitūdō (“straightness; uprightness”). Corominas lists it among the derivatives of recto, dated about 1440. The same word is Catalan rectitud, French rectitude and…
rector
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin rēctor (“helmsman; guide, ruler”). Corominas lists it among the learned derivatives of regir, in his article on rey. The Latin noun is formed from regō…
recuperar
It is borrowed from Latin recuperō (“to recover, get back”), a learned doublet of recobrar, which continues the same Latin verb by inheritance. García de Diego also calls it a learned word; cobrar…
recurrente
It is borrowed from Latin recurrēns (“running back, returning”), the present participle of recurrō (“to run back, return”). The DLE also analyses it as from Spanish recurrir + -nte, and the 2001…
recusar
It is borrowed from Latin recūsō (“to object, refuse”), a learned word taken over in the language of the law. The Latin verb is formed from re- and causa (“cause; lawsuit”), like its siblings accūsō…
red
It is inherited from Old Spanish red, inherited from Latin rēte (“net”). The Latin word was neuter, but popular Latin already had a feminine rētis, and more rarely a masculine one; the masculine…
reducir
It is borrowed from Latin redūcō (“to lead back, bring back”), taken from Latin as a learned word. The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and dūcō (“to lead”). The same Latin verb gave…
redundancia
It is borrowed from Latin redundantia (“overflow, superfluity”). The Latin noun is formed on redundāns, the present participle of redundō (“to overflow”), which is made of red- (“back, again”) and…
redundante
It is borrowed from Latin redundāns (“overflowing”), the present participle of redundō (“to overflow”). The Academy long called it the present participle of redundar, and DICCA-XV derives it from…
referir
It is borrowed from Latin referre (“to carry back; to report, relate”), recorded from about 1440. The Latin verb is made of re- (“back, again”) and ferō (“to carry, bear”). Old Spanish also had a…
reflejo
It is borrowed from Latin reflexus (“a bending back, retreat”), a noun formed from reflectō (“to bend back; to turn the mind back to something”). Gómez de Silva traces the Latin noun to the past…
reflexivo
The DLE derives it from Latin reflexus (“bent back”), the past participle of reflectō (“to bend back”), with the suffix -ivo; Autoridades gave a Latin reflexivus as its model. Corominas lists it…
refracción
It is borrowed from Latin refractio (“a breaking back”), a learned word. Corominas lists it under fracción, with refringir and refractar, from refringō (“to break up, break back”), a derivative of…
refrigeración
It is borrowed from Latin refrigeratio (“cooling”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed on refrīgerō (“to cool”), from re- and frīgus (“cold”). Corominas lists it, undated, among the learned…
refrigerar
It is borrowed from Latin refrīgerō (“to cool”), a learned word. The Latin verb is formed from re- and frīgus (“cold”); besides “to cool, chill” it came to mean “to relieve, refresh”, and in Late…
regalía
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin rēgālis (“royal, of a king”). DICCA-XV takes it instead from the substantivised rēgālia (“things belonging to the king”). Du Cange records Medieval Latin…
regeneración
It is borrowed from Latin regenerātiō (“a being born again”), a word of Church Latin. The Latin noun comes from regenerō (“to beget again”). DICCA-XV and Corominas place it in the family of gignō…
registro
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin registrum, regestum, from Late Latin regesta (“lists, records”). Corominas and the BDELC take it straight from the Late Latin plural. The Late Latin word is the…
regla
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin rēgula (“straight rod, ruler; rule”), taken from Latin in the earliest period of the language. The Latin noun meant a straight bar of wood or metal before…
regresión
It is borrowed from Latin regressio (“a going back, (rhetoric) a figure of repetition”), a noun of action from regredior (“to go back”). The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and gradior (“to…
regreso
It is borrowed from Latin regressus (“return”), a learned word. It is formed from Latin regredior (“to go back”) + -tus, and the verb is formed from Latin re- + gradior (“to step, walk”). De Vaan…
regulador
It is formed from Spanish regular + -dor, with the agent suffix added to the verb meaning “to regulate”. The verb is from Late Latin regulāre (“to lay down rules”), from rēgula (“rule”). Corominas…