Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 27).
rienda
It is inherited from Old Spanish rienda, inherited from Vulgar Latin *retĭna (“rein”), a noun made from retineō (“to hold back, restrain”). The classical word for “rein”, retināculum, comes from the…
riesgo
Its origin is uncertain. Corominas thinks it is probably the same word as risco “steep crag”, old inherited from Old Spanish riesco, from the danger of those who travel such places or of a sailor…
río
It is inherited from Old Spanish rio, inherited from Late Latin rīus, the reduced form of Latin rīvus (“brook; channel”) that inscriptions and other vulgar texts often show. García de Diego likewise…
risible
It is borrowed from Late Latin rīsibilis (“able to laugh”), a learned word. The adjective is formed from Latin rīdeō (“to laugh”) + -bilis, and is first found in Martianus Capella. De Vaan finds no…
rito
It is borrowed from Latin rītus (“custom; religious ceremony, rite”), a learned word. Corominas notes that his earliest record, in Palencia (1490), gives the word with a string of synonyms, as if it…
robar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *raubare, a word that spoken Latin borrowed from Proto-Germanic *raubōną (“to plunder, snatch”). Corominas holds that the loan was made early, through the Germanic…
rojo
It is inherited from Old Spanish roxo, inherited from Latin russeus (“deep red”). The DLE gives instead the simpler adjective russus (“red”), from which the Latin word is derived. García de Diego…
romance
Corominas takes it to be inherited from Latin rōmānice (“in the Roman way”), an adverb first applied to the speech of the Romans and later to the spoken language of the Romanised peoples. Speaking…
romper
It is inherited from Latin rumpō (“to burst, break”), already romper in the oldest texts. The word has been in general use in every period, and is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese…
rosa
It is inherited from Old Spanish rosa, inherited from Latin rosa (“rose”). Corominas calls it semi-learned: the word was very popular, but its stressed /o/ did not become the diphthong /ue/, as it…
rotundo
It is borrowed from Latin rotundus (“round, wheel-shaped”), a learned word; the inherited doublet is redondo. The DLE derives the Latin adjective from rota (“wheel”). The OLD takes the Latin…
rubio
It is inherited from Latin rubeus (“reddish, red”), which the Old Spanish texts mostly spell ruvio. The Latin adjective (also robeus) is formed from rubeō (“to be red”). The same root gives ruber…
rúbrica
It is borrowed from Latin rubrīca (“red ochre; a heading written in red”), a learned word. In Latin legal language it named collections of laws whose chapter titles were written in red, and then…
ruda
It is inherited from Latin rūta (“rue”). The word is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese arruda, Catalan ruda, French rue and Italian ruta, and Mozarabic ruta. The Portuguese…
rudimento
It is borrowed from Latin rudīmentum (“first attempt; first lessons”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from rudis (“unwrought, untrained”) with the suffix -mentum, so it first meant the…
rueda
It is inherited from Old Spanish rueda, inherited from Latin rota (“wheel”). The same word is Asturian rueda, Aragonese rueda, Portuguese roda, Galician roda, Catalan roda, Occitan ròda, French…
ruido
It is inherited from Old Spanish roído, inherited from Latin rugītus (“roaring”), which in Late Latin had taken the sense “din, uproar”. In Latin the word was used almost always for the roar of a…
rumbo
It is borrowed from Latin rhombus (“rhombus, lozenge”), which is from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos). The word first named each of the divisions of the compass rose and of the horizon, because a…
rumor
It is borrowed from Latin rūmor (“noise; common talk, rumour”), a learned word. Corominas places it beside ruido, which comes from the same Latin root. The inherited forms of the Latin word are…
sábado
It is inherited from Latin sabbatum (“the Sabbath”), from Ancient Greek σάββατον (sábbaton), from Biblical Hebrew שַׁבָּת (šabbāt, “the weekly day of rest”). The Latin word is found in Ovid, Horace…
saber
It is inherited from Latin sapiō (“to taste; to be wise, know”). In Latin the verb usually referred to taste, but the comic poets already used it for “to have sense, know what one is about”, which…
sabio
It is inherited from Old Spanish sabio, inherited from Late Latin sapĭdus (“wise, prudent”), according to the DCECH, the Breve diccionario, the DLE and Wiktionary. The Latin adjective meant “tasty…
sacerdote
It is borrowed from Latin sacerdōs (“priest”), a learned word first recorded in a charter of 1209 and in Berceo. Wiktionary and Gómez de Silva take the Spanish form from the Latin accusative. The…
saciedad
It is borrowed from Latin satietās (“sufficiency; satiety”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from satis (“enough”) with the suffix -tās. The adverb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sh₂-ti-…
saco
It is inherited from Old Spanish saco, inherited from Latin saccus (“sack, bag; coarse garment”). The Latin word was borrowed from Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos, “sack; sackcloth”), which also meant…
sacrosanto
It is borrowed from Latin sacrōsānctus (“protected by a religious sanction, inviolable”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is probably the ablative of sacer (“sacred”) (Wiktionary: of the noun…
sacudir
It is inherited from Old Spanish sacudir, earlier sacodir, inherited from Latin succutiō (“to toss up from below, shake”). The Latin verb is formed sub- (“under”) + quatiō (“to shake”). The first…
sal
It is inherited from Old Spanish sal, inherited from Latin sal (“salt”). The word is in general use in every period and is common to all the Romance languages. The same word is Portuguese sal…
salchicha
It is borrowed from Italian salciccia, a 16th–17th-century variant of the more common salsiccia, recorded in the 14th century. The Italian word is from Late Latin salsīcia, short for farta salsicia…
salino
It is borrowed from Latin salīnus (“of salt”), an adjective formed from sāl (“salt”) with the suffix -īnus. Corominas lists it among the derivatives of sal, beside salina, from salīnae (“salt…
salir
It is inherited from Old Spanish salir, inherited from Latin salīre (“to jump, leap; to spring forth”). The sense “to go out” is already usual in the earliest Spanish, but the Latin sense “to jump”…
salsa
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *salsa (“salted thing”), the noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”). The adjective is the past participle of sallō (“to salt”), from sal (“salt”)…
saltar
It is inherited from Old Spanish saltar, inherited from Latin saltāre (“to dance; to hop”). The Latin verb meant mainly “to dance” and only sometimes “to hop, frisk”; it is the intensive or…
salto
It is inherited from Latin saltus (“a jump, leap”), the action noun of saliō (“to jump”). The verb saltar continues the intensive saltō (“to dance; to hop”). DICCA-XV instead derives the noun from…
salud
It is inherited from Latin salūtem (“health; safety; greeting”), the accusative of the Latin noun. The Latin noun is from the same root as salvus (“whole, safe”), and de Vaan traces both to…
saludar
It is inherited from Latin salūtō (“to greet, hail”), through Old Spanish saludar, recorded from the Cantar de mio Cid on. The Latin verb is formed on salūs (“health, safety; greeting”), which…
salvador
It is inherited from Old Spanish salvador, inherited from Latin salvātor (“saviour”). Corominas lists it under salvo and salvar, with a first record in Berceo. The same Latin word is Portuguese…
salvar
It is inherited from Old Spanish salvar, inherited from Late Latin salvāre (“to save”), a Late Latin verb formed from salvus (“safe, unharmed”). The DCECH notes that in the adjective salvo the Latin…
salvo
It is inherited from Latin salvus (“whole, unharmed, safe”), a word in use in every period of Spanish and found in all the western Romance languages. Corominas notes that the treatment of the group…
sangre
It is inherited from Latin sanguis (“blood”), which passed through the older Spanish form sangne. Wiktionary explains the change of /n/ to /ɾ/ as a dissimilation of the two nasal consonants that met…
sanitario
It is a learned formation of the 19th century: from Latin sānitās (“health”), with the Spanish suffix -ario. Wiktionary adds that it was probably modelled in part on French sanitaire. The older…
sano
It is inherited from Latin sānus (“healthy; sane”), which also meant “sensible, in one's right mind”. The same Latin word is Portuguese são, Galician san, Asturian sanu, Catalan sa, Occitan san…
santo
It is inherited from Old Spanish santo, also written sancto, inherited from Latin sanctus (“holy, sacred”). The Latin adjective is the past participle of sanciō (“to make sacred or inviolable…
sarga
1. The word for the twill is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sarica, from Latin sērica (“silk cloths, silk garments”), the neuter plural of sēricus (“silken”). The Latin adjective is from Ancient Greek…
saturación
It is borrowed from Late Latin saturatio (“filling, satisfying”), a noun of action formed on saturō (“to fill, sate”). The Latin verb is from satur (“full, well-fed”), which belongs to the same root…
saturar
It is borrowed from Latin saturō (“to fill, satiate”), a learned word. The Latin verb is formed from satur (“well-fed, full”), which belongs to the family of satis (“enough”). De Vaan reconstructs…
se
1. The reflexive pronoun is inherited from Latin sē (“oneself”), the accusative of the Latin reflexive pronoun. The same word is Portuguese se, Galician se, Catalan se, French se, Italian si and…
seco
It is inherited from Latin siccus (“dry”), with the same form in Old Spanish seco. The word is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese seco, Galician seco, Asturian secu, Catalan sec…
secreto
It is borrowed from Latin secrētus (“separated, set apart; secret”), with the noun taken from its neuter secrētum (“a secret; a secluded place”). It is a learned word, first recorded in Berceo in…
seda
It is probably inherited from Latin saeta (“bristle of a pig or horse; fishing line”), which in the Middle Ages must have come to be used of silk thread, as the agreement of the Romance languages…
seducir
It is borrowed from Latin sēdūcere (“to lead aside”), a learned word. The Latin verb is formed from sē- (“apart, astray”) and dūcō (“to lead”). It first meant to draw a person aside or to separate…
seguir
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sequīre, from Latin sequor (“to follow”). The DLE explains the Vulgar Latin infinitive by the ending of īre (“to go”). Corominas notes that Latin sequor…
según
It is inherited from Latin secundum (“following; according to”). Old Spanish segund, also segunt and segundo, is an apocopated form due to its unstressed use before the noun. The Latin preposition…
segundo
It is inherited from Latin secundus (“following; second”), by a semi-learned route: Corominas finds the treatment of the stressed vowel surprising, since popular development would have given…
seguramente
It is formed from Spanish seguro + -mente, the adjective with the adverb-forming suffix. The adjective, recorded from 1206, is from Latin sēcūrus (“free from care; without danger”), itself made of…
seguro
It is inherited from Old Spanish seguro, inherited from Latin securus (“free from care; safe”). The Latin adjective is formed with the privative prefix sē- (“without”) and cura (“care, anxiety”), so…
seis
It is inherited from Old Spanish seis, inherited from Latin sex (“six”). The same Latin word is Portuguese seis, Galician seis, Catalan sis, French six, Italian sei and Romanian șase. The Latin…
sello
It is inherited from Old Spanish seello, inherited from Latin sigillum (“small figure; mark; seal”). The Latin noun is a diminutive of signum (“sign, mark”). Wiktionary reconstructs its earlier form…
semana
It is inherited from Late Latin septimāna (“week”); Old Spanish semana has the same form beside older spellings. The Late Latin noun is the feminine of the adjective septimānus (“of the seventh, of…
seminario
It is borrowed from Latin sēminārium (“seed plot, nursery”), in Medieval Latin also “a school for the young”. The Latin noun is formed from sēmen (“seed”) with the suffix -ārium (“place for”)…