Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 29).
soportar
It is borrowed from Latin supportō (“to carry up, convey; to endure”). The Breve diccionario dates it to the 15th century, and Wiktionary also places the first record there; the corpus has it from…
sordo
It is inherited from Latin surdus (“deaf; muted”); Old Spanish sordo has the same form. The word has been in use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages. The same Latin word is…
sospechar
It is inherited from Latin suspectō (“to look up at; to mistrust”), a verb of imperial Latin; classical Latin said suspicor. The Latin verb is the frequentative of suspiciō (“to look up at”), formed…
sostener
It is inherited from Latin sustineō (“to hold up, support”). The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and teneō (“to hold”), the source of tener. De Vaan traces the simple verb to…
su
It is the unstressed form of suyo, used before the noun; both are inherited from Latin suus (“his, her, its own”). Corominas dates the stressed form, then súo, to the 11th century, and the reduced…
subir
It is inherited from Latin subeō (“to go under; to approach from below”), formed from sub- (“under”) and eō (“to go”). Already in some classical authors the Latin verb comes close to the Spanish…
subsidio
It is borrowed from Latin subsidium (“reserve troops; reinforcement, help”). The Latin noun is derived from subsīdō (“to settle down; to lie in wait, be in reserve”), formed of sub- (“under”) and…
suceder
It is borrowed from Latin succēdō (“to come after, take the place of”), a learned word. VOX dates the borrowing to the 15th century. The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under; close after”) and…
suceso
It is borrowed from Latin successus (“approach, arrival; succession; success”). The Latin noun is formed from succēdō (“to come up, follow; to turn out well”) with the action-noun suffix -tus…
sudor
It is inherited from Latin sudor (“sweat”). The inherited form was Old Spanish suor, with the loss of the Latin /d/ between vowels, as in Portuguese suor and Galician suor; the modern form kept or…
sueldo
It is inherited from Late Latin solidus (“a gold coin”), the classical Latin adjective “solid” used as a noun. Wiktionary gives the chain through the contracted soldus. The contracted form already…
suelo
It is inherited from Old Spanish suelo, inherited from Latin solum (“base, bottom; ground; the land one lives in”). The Latin word had a short ⟨ŏ⟩. The same word is Portuguese solo, Galician solo…
sueño
It is inherited from Latin somnus (“sleep”) (Old Spanish suenno), and Spanish merged with it Latin somnium (“dream”), a derivative of ⟨somnus⟩. From the first literary text on, ⟨sueño⟩ has had the…
suerte
It is inherited from Old Spanish suerte, inherited from Latin sors (“lot”). The Glosas Silenses still write sorte with the Latin vowel; suert, with the diphthong, is found in a charter of 1199, and…
suficiente
It is borrowed from Latin sufficiēns (“sufficient, adequate”), the present participle of sufficiō (“to suffice”), which is formed from sub- (“under”) and faciō (“to do, make”). Besides “to suffice”…
sufrir
It continues inherited from Old Spanish sufrir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *sufferīre, a remodelling in the fourth conjugation of Latin sufferre (“to bear, endure”). Corominas notes that the word…
sugerir
It is borrowed from Latin suggerō (“to put under; to supply, prompt”), a learned word. Corominas dates it from 1685 and treats it in the family of gesto, whose Latin source is the verb gerō (“to…
sumergir
It is borrowed from Latin submergō (“to plunge under, sink”), a learned word. Corominas lists it among the learned words of the article on somorgujo, the diving bird, whose name comes from a Vulgar…
superar
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin superāre (“to rise above, surpass, overcome”). Corominas lists it among the learned words of the family of sobre and dates it to the early 17th…
superficial
It is borrowed from Latin superficiālis (“of the surface”), from superficiēs (“surface”) with the suffix -ālis. The Latin adjective is late, found in Cassiodorus, Isidore and, in the figurative…
superior
It is borrowed from Latin superior (“higher, upper”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is the comparative of superus (“upper, situated above”), itself formed from super (“over, above”). Gómez de…
superioridad
It is formed from Spanish superior + -idad. Wiktionary instead treats it as from Medieval Latin superioritās, built on superior (“higher”). superior continues the Latin comparative of superus…
superstición
It is borrowed from Latin superstitiō (“excessive religious awe; superstition”). Corominas dates it to about 1440; the CDH has it from 1385, in Juan Fernández de Heredia. Corominas gives the Latin…
suponer
It is borrowed from Latin suppōnō (“to put under; to substitute”), a learned word whose figurative sense “to assume” developed in Latin. Niermeyer records the Medieval Latin sense “to suppose…
surgir
The nautical sense “to anchor” is borrowed from Catalan sorgir, which is common in the Catalan code of sea law, the Consolat de Mar, and in other Catalan texts from the 13th century on. The sense…
suspender
It is borrowed from Latin suspendere (“to hang up; to leave hanging”), a learned word. The verb is formed from Latin sub- + pendō, with the prefix in its variant sus-; Gómez de Silva glosses the…
suspirar
It is inherited from Old Spanish sospirar, inherited from Latin suspīrō (“to sigh”). García de Diego calls the modern form with ⟨u⟩ a learned word beside the old one. Vox calls it a word inherited…
suyo
It is inherited from Old Spanish súo, inherited from Latin suus (“his, her, their own”). The form súo is recorded in the 11th century, and suyo appears about 1140, with the unstressed su beside it…
tabla
It is inherited from Latin tabula (“board, plank; gaming board; writing tablet”). Like fabla from fābula and establo from stabulum, it lost the vowel after the stress, which Lanchetas says had first…
tajar
It is inherited from Late Latin tāliāre (“to cut, split”), a verb formed on tālea (“a cutting for planting; a stake”). Corominas and the DLE give the verb as Vulgar Latin, with ⟨e⟩ before the…
tal
It is inherited from Latin tālis (“of such a kind, such”); Old Spanish tal already had the modern form. Corominas notes that the word has been in general use at every period and is common to all the…
talento
It is borrowed from Latin talentum (“a weight; a sum of money”), which is from Ancient Greek τάλαντον (tálanton, “balance; a weight of gold; a talent”). The Greek word meant first the balance, then…
talón
It is inherited from Old Spanish talon, inherited from Vulgar Latin *tālō (“heel”). The Vulgar Latin word is a derivative of Latin talus (“ankle, ankle bone; heel”), and is recorded only in a late…
tanto
It is inherited from Old Spanish tanto, inherited from Latin tantus (“so great, so much”). Corominas notes that the word is used at all periods and is common to all the Romance languages, so that…
tarde
It is inherited from Latin tardē (“slowly; late”), the adverb of tardus (“slow”), and the Old Spanish form was already tarde. The adverb is common to all the western Romance languages; the sense…
tardío
It is inherited from Old Spanish tardío, inherited from Late Latin tardīvus (“slow; late”). The Latin adjective, attested only in the Tironian notes, was formed from Latin tardus (“slow”) with the…
teatro
It is borrowed from Latin theatrum (“theatre”), from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “place for seeing; theatre”), a derivative of θεάομαι (theáomai, “to watch, contemplate”). The Greek noun is…
techo
It is inherited from Latin tēctum (“roof; dwelling”), the neuter past participle of tegō (“to cover, hide, protect”) used as a noun. Corominas notes that it has been in general use at all periods…
tejón
It is inherited from Old Spanish texón, inherited from Late Latin taxo (“badger”), a Late Latin word of Germanic origin. The Latin word is recorded only from the 4th century, in Polemius Silvius and…
tela
It is inherited from Old Spanish tela, inherited from Latin tēla (“cloth on a loom, web”). The same Latin word is Portuguese teia (older tea), Galician tea, Catalan tela, Occitan tela, French toile…
temblar
It is inherited from Old Spanish tembrar, inherited from Vulgar Latin tremulāre (“to tremble”), a verb formed from tremulus (“trembling”), itself from tremō (“to tremble”). Wiktionary notes that the…
temer
It is inherited from Old Spanish temer, inherited from Latin timeō (“I fear”). Corominas notes that the verb is frequent from the earliest texts and is common to all the Romance languages except…
tender
It is inherited from Old Spanish tender, inherited from Latin tendō (“to stretch, spread out”). Corominas notes that the verb has been in general use at every period of Spanish. In the present forms…
tener
It is inherited from Latin tenēre (“to hold, occupy; to keep”), Old Spanish tener “to hold”. The preterite tuve took its ⟨u⟩ from hube of the near synonym haber. The main event in its history is…
tentar
It is inherited from Old Spanish tentar, inherited from Latin temptō (“to touch, feel; to try; to tempt”). The Latin verb was also spelt tentō, the form the DLE gives. Corominas notes that the…
teoría
It is borrowed from Late Latin theōria (“speculative inquiry”), from Ancient Greek θεωρία (theōría, “contemplation, speculation”). The DLE and the DCECH derive it directly from the Greek word. The…
tercio
It is borrowed from Latin tertius (“third”). Corominas treats it under tres as taken from Latin, and the REW too sets tercio apart from the popular descendants of the Latin word. The inherited…
terminar
It is borrowed from Latin termināre (“to mark the bounds of; to end”), a derivative of terminus (“boundary stone; limit”). Corominas lists it among the derivatives of término, itself taken from the…
término
It is borrowed from Latin terminus (“boundary stone, limit”). Corominas treats it as a learned word, taken from Latin, though it was used in every period and became thoroughly popular. The DEEH sets…
terreno
It is inherited from Latin terrēnus (“of earth, earthly”), the adjective of terra (“earth”); the noun continues its neuter used as a noun, terrēnum (“land, ground”). Berceo uses it with a variant…
terrible
It is borrowed from Latin terribilis (“frightening, dreadful”), a learned word of the family of terror. Corominas dates it to about 1400, in the old Judeo-Spanish Bibles, and finds it frequent from…
tesoro
It is inherited from Latin thēsaurus (“treasure; storehouse”), from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”). Meyer-Lübke considered it a semi-learned word; Corominas allows this…
testimonio
It is borrowed from Latin testimōnium (“evidence, testimony”), a learned word already present in the Glosas Silenses at the end of the 10th century. The noun is formed from Latin testis (“witness”)…
tiempo
It is inherited from Old Spanish tiempo, inherited from Latin tempus (“time”), continuing the Latin accusative, which had the same form as the nominative. The regular outcome would have been a…
tienda
It is inherited from Late Latin tenda (“tent”), a word of early Medieval Latin that Byzantine writers record from the 7th century, formed from tendō (“to stretch, spread out”). Wiktionary traces it…
tierno
It is inherited from Latin tener (“soft, delicate, young”). After the unstressed middle vowel was lost, the consonants /n/ and /r/ came together and changed places, /nr/ becoming /rn/. The form…
tierra
It is inherited from Old Spanish tierra, inherited from Latin terra (“dry land, earth”). Corominas notes that the word is frequent from the earliest texts in all its modern senses, which were…
tinta
It is inherited from Late Latin tincta, properly the feminine past participle of tingō (“to wet, dye”), so that the word first meant “something dyed”. The Late Latin noun is already found at the end…
tío
It is inherited from Old Spanish tio, inherited from Late Latin thius (“uncle”), which is from Ancient Greek θεῖος (theîos, “uncle”). The feminine tía is likewise thia, from θεία (theía). Isidore of…
tirano
It is a learned borrowed from Latin tyrannus (“monarch; tyrant”), first recorded in the third quarter of the 13th century. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “absolute ruler”)…