Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 28).
seña
It is inherited from Latin signa (“marks; military standards”), the neuter plural of the noun, taken as a feminine singular. Catalan senya continues the same plural. The Latin word also gave…
senador
It is borrowed from Latin senātor (“member of the senate”), first recorded in Berceo. The Latin noun is formed from senātus (“senate”) with the agent suffix -tor. The word for the senate is in turn…
señal
It is inherited from Late Latin signāle (“sign”), the Late Latin adjective signālis (“serving as a sign”) used as a noun. The DLE takes it from Medieval Latin signale. The word took over most of the…
sencillo
It is inherited from Old Spanish senziello, inherited from Vulgar Latin *singellus, a diminutive of Latin singulus (“one at a time; single”). The Vulgar Latin form is not recorded, but a variant…
sendos
It is inherited from Old Spanish sennos, inherited from Latin singulī (“one apiece, one to each”), taken in its accusative plural. Corominas derives it from the plural in the sense “one each”. Old…
señor
It is inherited from Latin senior (“older”), the comparative of senex (“old”); the Old Spanish form was sennor. In the plural seniores named the most respected old men in the Late Empire, the…
sensibilidad
It is borrowed from Latin sēnsibilitās (“sensibility”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from sēnsibilis (“perceptible”), itself from sentiō (“to feel, perceive”). De Vaan traces the verb to…
sensual
It is borrowed from Late Latin sēnsuālis (“endowed with sensation; relating to the senses”). The Latin adjective is post-classical, found in Tertullian and Prudentius, and is formed sēnsus (“sense…
sentir
It is inherited from Latin sentiō (“to perceive by the senses; to realise; to think, hold an opinion”), and Old Spanish sentir has the same form. The present sientet already occurs in the Glosas…
separar
It is borrowed from Latin sēparō (“to divide, separate”), formed from sē- (“apart”) and parō (“to prepare, arrange”). García de Diego calls the Spanish verb a learned word. Vulgar Latin had a…
ser
The verb merges two Latin verbs. Most of its forms continue inherited from Latin esse (“to be”), in the Vulgar Latin infinitive *essere that replaced classical esse. The others, including the…
sereno
It is inherited from Latin serēnus (“clear, cloudless; calm”). The same word is Portuguese sereno, Galician sereo, Asturian serenu, Catalan serè, French serein and Italian sereno. The noun “night…
serie
It is borrowed from Latin seriēs (“row, chain, succession”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from serō (“to link, join”) with the suffix -iēs. Corominas lists it in his article on disertar…
serio
It is borrowed from Latin sērius (“weighty, important, serious”), a learned word first recorded in 1626. Corominas finds it neither in Alonso de Palencia, Nebrija, Casas, Oudin or Covarrubias, nor…
serpiente
It is inherited from Old Spanish serpiente, inherited from Latin serpēns (“snake, serpent”). Corominas thinks it was rather a semi-learned word than a fully popular one, since it was always a…
servicio
It is borrowed from Latin servitium (“slavery, servitude”), recorded from about 950 in the Glosas Emilianenses. An Old Spanish servizo, the inherited form, is found in the Fuero Juzgo and survives…
servir
It is inherited from Latin servīre (“to be a slave; to serve”), derived from servus (“slave”). It is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese servir, Galician servir, Catalan servir…
seso
It is inherited from Latin sēnsus (“perception, sense, understanding”), the action noun of sentiō (“to feel, perceive”). Corominas notes that the Latin word survives as a popular word only in…
sexo
It is borrowed from Latin sexus (“sex, the state of being male or female”), a learned word. Corominas first finds it in Santillana and in Alfonso de Palencia (1490), and dates it about 1440; the CDH…
si
It is inherited from Old Spanish si, inherited from Latin sī (“if”). The Latin conjunction had the older spelling ⟨sei⟩, still found in early inscriptions and in Plautus. The same Latin word is…
sí
1. The word for “oneself” is inherited from Latin sibi (“to or for oneself”), the dative of the reflexive pronoun suī. Bénaben explains the loss of the second syllable as an analogy with mihi, which…
sidra
It is inherited from Old Spanish sizra, through an unrecorded *sizdra, inherited from Late Latin sicera (“an intoxicating drink of the Hebrews; any alcoholic drink made from fruit or grain”)…
siempre
It is inherited from Old Spanish siempre, inherited from Latin semper (“always”). The same Latin word is Portuguese sempre, Galician sempre, Asturian siempre, Catalan sempre, Occitan sempre and…
sierra
It is inherited from Latin serra (“saw”). The sense “range of mountains” is a comparison with the toothed outline of the ridges, as Covarrubias already explained. Corominas notes that this use is…
siervo
It is inherited from Old Spanish sieruo, inherited from Latin servus (“slave”). The same Latin word is Portuguese servo, Galician servo, Asturian siervu, French serf and Italian servo. The origin of…
siesta
It is inherited from Old Spanish siesta, inherited from Latin sexta (“sixth”), short for hōra sexta (“the sixth hour”). The Romans counted the hours from sunrise, so the sixth hour fell at about…
siete
It is inherited from Latin septem (“seven”). The stressed short /e/ of the Latin word became the diphthong ⟨ie⟩, as in the other Ibero-Romance languages. Lanchetas compares the development of nepta…
siglo
It is inherited from Old Spanish sieglo, inherited from Latin saeculum (“generation; lifetime; age”). Corominas calls it a semi-learned descendant of the Latin word, and Wiktionary notes that a…
significar
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin significō (“to indicate by signs; to mean”), first used by Berceo. The Latin verb is formed on signum (“sign, mark”) with -ficō (“to make”). Early Latin…
signo
It is borrowed from Latin signum (“mark, sign, token”), a learned word that Spanish took from Latin in the 13th century. The same Latin word lives on in popular form in seña, from the plural signa…
silencio
It is borrowed from Latin silentium (“silence, stillness”), a learned word first recorded in Berceo. Corominas notes that both of Berceo's examples refer to the silence of the monastic rule, and…
simple
It is borrowed from Latin simplus (“simple, single”) according to Corominas. The DLE derives it instead from the Latin adverb simple (“simply”), formed from that adjective, and Wiktionary and…
simulador
It is borrowed from Latin simulātor (“imitator; pretender”), an agent noun formed from simulō (“to imitate, feign”) with -tor. Spanish took the verb simular from the same Latin source in the 15th…
sin
It is inherited from Latin sine (“without”). The oldest Spanish record has the expected form Old Spanish sen, which glosses the Latin ⟨sine testibus⟩ “without witnesses” in the Glosas Silenses, and…
sincero
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin sincērus (“sound, whole, pure”), first found in Berceo. De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *sm-kair/so- (“whole, intact”), with the first part sem- (“one”)…
síntoma
It is borrowed from Late Latin symptōma (“symptom”), a medical word of Late Latin. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (sýmptōma, “coincidence; mishap; symptom”), from συμπίπτω (sympíptō…
sistema
It is borrowed from Late Latin systēma (“a whole made of several parts”), which is from Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma, “organized whole, body; system”). The Greek noun is formed on συνίστημι…
sitio
Its origin is uncertain: Corominas and Pascual consider it probably a semi-learned alteration, inherited from Latin situs (“position, site”), pointing to the late first records, the old variant sito…
situar
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin situō (“to place”), a verb formed from situs (“site, position”). Corominas counts it among the purely learned words of its family. The Academy's earlier editions…
soberano
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *superiānus (“being above, supreme”), according to Corominas, who derives it from superius (“higher”). Alternatively it may be superior with a change of suffix. The…
sobornar
It is borrowed from Latin subōrnō (“to equip; to prepare in secret”). Wiktionary suggests the prefix was adapted to the native so-, and lists the variant subornar. The REW records the verb in the…
sobre
1. The preposition is inherited from Old Spanish sobre, inherited from Latin super (“over, above”). Its learned doublet is super. Cabrera explained the order of the sounds by a shift of ⟨r⟩: ⟨super⟩…
sobrevivir
It is inherited from Old Spanish sobrevivir, inherited from Latin supervīvere (“to outlive, survive”), equivalent to sobre- + vivir. The Latin verb is formed from super- (“over, beyond”) and vīvō…
sobriedad
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin sōbrietās (“sobriety”), the abstract noun of sōbrius (“sober”). The BDELC treats it as a derivative under sobrio and dates it 1490. The same Latin noun gave…
sobrino
It is inherited from Old Spanish sobrino, inherited from Latin sobrīnus (“second cousin”). In Latin the word named the son of a first cousin and more distant cousins, while “first cousin” was…
social
It is borrowed from Latin sociālis (“of a companion or partner; of allies; social”). Corominas, who dates it only from the Academy's dictionary of 1817, says it came by way of French social, a word…
sociedad
It is borrowed from Latin societās (“partnership, fellowship, association”), a learned word first found in Berceo. The Latin noun is formed from socius (“companion, partner”) with the suffix -tās…
socio
It is borrowed from Latin socius (“companion, partner”). Corominas doubts that the word was in general use in the 15th century: Alfonso de Palencia does not give it when he defines the Latin noun…
soldar
It continues inherited from Old Spanish soldar, inherited from Latin solidō (“to make solid, consolidate”). In classical Latin the verb meant “to consolidate, harden”; the sense “to solder” is late…
soler
The verb meaning “to be accustomed” is inherited from Old Spanish soler, inherited from Latin soleō (“to be used to”), and has been in use since the Cid. The same Latin verb gave Italian solere, Old…
solicitud
It is borrowed from Latin sollicitūdō (“anxiety; care”), the quality of being sollicitus (“anxious”). The Latin noun is formed from that adjective with the suffix -tūdō, shortened by haplology…
solo
It is inherited from Latin sōlus (“alone, only”); Old Spanish solo is recorded in a charter of 1040, and the word has been in general use ever since. The adverb, “only”, is the same word: Corominas…
solución
It is borrowed from Latin solūtiō (“loosening; payment; explanation”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from solvō (“to loosen, solve, pay”) with the suffix -tiō. Bénaben analyses the verb…
sombra
It continues inherited from Latin umbra (“shade, shadow”) with an added ⟨s-⟩, which only Spanish and Portuguese have. Corominas thinks the ⟨s-⟩ most likely came from sol and its derivatives, because…
sonar
1. The word for “to sound” is inherited from Latin sono (“to sound”); the Old Spanish form was already sonar. It is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese soar, Galician soar, Catalan…
soñar
It is inherited from Old Spanish soñar, inherited from Latin somniō (“to dream”). The Latin verb is formed from somnium (“dream”), itself from somnus (“sleep”). In Spanish the Latin nouns for…
sonido
It is inherited from Old Spanish sonido, inherited from Latin sonitus (“noise, din”), a semi-learned word. The stress moved from the first syllable of the Latin word to the ⟨i⟩ under the influence…
sonreír
It is inherited from Old Spanish sonreir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *subrīdīre, from Latin subrīdeō (“to smile”). The Vulgar Latin form moved to the fourth conjugation, as reír did; The French…
sopa
It is inherited from Late Latin suppa (“piece of bread soaked in a liquid”), a word of Germanic origin. Corominas places the Germanic word in the family of Old High German sūfan (“to sip, to drink”)…
soplar
It continues inherited from Latin sufflō (“to blow on, puff up”), formed sub- (“under”) + flō (“to blow”). The change of the Latin /f/ to /p/ is irregular. Corominas notes that Spanish shares it…