Spanish words from Latin
1854 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 30).
tirar
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *tīrāre, a verb known only from the Romance languages, whose origin is uncertain. The same word is Italian tirare, French tirer, Occitan tirar, Catalan…
título
It is borrowed from Latin titulus (“inscription; title of a book; label, notice; title of honour”). Its origin in Latin is unknown: Wiktionary and Bénaben mention a possible Etruscan source. The…
tocar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *toccāre, an imitation of the sound of bells and other struck objects, ⟨toc⟩. Corominas considers the onomatopoeia common to all the Romance languages and probably…
todo
It is inherited from Old Spanish todo, inherited from Latin tōtus (“whole, entire”). In Romance it also took over the meaning of omnis (“every, all”), which left traces only in Italian and…
tormento
It is borrowed from Latin tormentum (“twisted rope; war engine; torture”), a semi-learned word. An inherited form would have had the diphthong /je/, which the old verb tormientar, a variant of…
tornar
It is inherited from Latin tornō (“to turn on a lathe”), a verb that also meant “to turn (an object) round”; the verb is common to all the Romance languages. The Latin verb is derived from tornus…
toro
It is inherited from Latin taurus (“bull”). The word has been in general use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages. The same Latin word is Portuguese touro, Galician touro…
torre
It is inherited from Old Spanish torre, inherited from Latin turris (“tower”). The word is used in every period and is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese torre, Galician torre…
torta
It continues inherited from Late Latin torta (“round loaf, cake”), well documented in the Vulgate and other writings of Saint Jerome; the origin of the Latin word is uncertain. The DLE gives it as…
tortuga
It is inherited from Old Spanish tartuga, probably from Late Latin tartarūchus (“a demon”) in the feminine form. The Late Latin word is from Ancient Greek ταρταροῦχος (tartaroûkhos, “dweller in…
total
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin tōtālis (“entire, total”), from Latin tōtus (“whole, all”) and -ālis. The popular descendant of the Latin adjective is todo, under which Corominas treats it. The…
trabajar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tripaliāre (“to torture”), a verb formed on tripalium (“instrument of torture”). The noun is recorded from the 6th century, in the form trepalium, for a kind of…
traducir
It is borrowed from Latin trādūcō (“to lead across, transfer”), formed trāns- (“across”) + dūcō (“to lead”). Corominas lists it among the learned words from the Latin verb in his article on aducir…
traicionar
It is formed from Spanish traición + -ar. Corominas dates it 1855, and Boyd-Bowman has it already in 1814, in Uruguay. traición, recorded from about 1140, is from Latin trāditiō (“a handing over…
traidor
It is inherited from Old Spanish traydor, inherited from Latin trāditor (“one who hands over; traitor”). Corominas treats it as taken from Latin, and Wiktionary considers it perhaps semi-learned…
tranquilo
It is borrowed from Latin tranquillus (“calm, still”). The BDELC dates it about 1440; the DCECH cites the Marqués de Santillana, then Góngora in 1582, and finds it common in the Quijote. The noun…
transferir
It is borrowed from Latin trānsferō (“to carry across, transfer”), with a change of conjugation. The Latin verb is formed from trāns- (“across”) and ferō (“to carry”). The simple verb goes back to…
transformar
It is borrowed from Latin trānsfōrmō (“to change in shape, transform”), a learned word first found in Berceo in the 13th century. The verb is formed from Latin trāns- (“across, beyond”) + fōrmō (“to…
trapo
It is inherited from Late Latin drappus (“cloth, rag”). Spanish and Portuguese changed the initial /d/ to /t/ because no native Latin word began with ⟨dr⟩; the other Romance languages kept the /d/…
tratado
It is borrowed from Latin tractātus (“handling, treatment; a treatise”), a noun formed from tractō (“to handle, manage”), which in turn comes from the past participle of trahō (“to pull, drag”)…
tratar
It is borrowed from Latin tractō (“to handle, touch; to manage, deal with”), taken from Latin in the Middle Ages. García de Diego calls the word learned, and the Wikcionario semi-learned. The…
trecho
It is inherited from Latin tractus (“a drawing, dragging; a track; a stretch of space”). The Latin noun is formed from trahō (“to drag, draw”), the source of traer. García de Diego derives the word…
treinta
It is inherited from Old Spanish treinta, inherited from Latin trīgintā (“thirty”). Corominas assumes that the Latin form was replaced by a Vulgar Latin variant with a changed vowel, perhaps under…
tres
It is inherited from Latin trēs (“three”), and Old Spanish already had the same form. Latin declined the numeral, with a neuter tria; the neuter died out in the Romance languages, though Old Catalan…
triste
It is inherited from Old Spanish triste, inherited from Latin trīstis (“sad, gloomy”). Corominas notes that the word is common to all the Romance languages, though in some it may be semi-learned, as…
tu
It is inherited from Old Spanish tu, the unstressed form of the possessive that continues inherited from Latin tuus (“your, yours”). In Romance the Latin possessive split into an unstressed form…
tú
It is inherited from Latin tū (“you (singular)”), its nominative case, and has been in use since the earliest Spanish texts. The other forms of the pronoun continue other Latin cases: te the…
tudesco
According to the DLE it is borrowed from Medieval Latin Teutiscus, which the DLE takes from *Thiudiska. Wiktionary gives Medieval or Late Latin theodiscus, from *þiudiskaz, perhaps through an Old…
tuerto
It is inherited from Old Spanish tuerto, inherited from Latin tortus (“twisted”), the past participle of torqueō (“to twist, wind”). The same participle gave Italian torto, Portuguese torto and…
tumba
It is borrowed from Late Latin tumba (“grave”), which is from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “burial mound, grave”); Corominas records it first in Berceo. The Latin word is ecclesiastical, first…
túnica
It is borrowed from Latin tunica (“undergarment of the Romans, worn by both sexes”). Corominas dates it from the mid-15th century, in Juan de Mena and Alfonso de Palencia, but the CDH has it in…
turba
1. The word for peat is borrowed from French tourbe, which is from Frankish *turba (“tuft of grass”). French has the word from 1200. The Frankish word is reconstructed from Old High German zurba…
tuyo
It continues inherited from Latin tuus (“your, yours”), which in Spanish split into an unstressed form tu (in Old Spanish masculine to, feminine tu or tue) and a stressed form, the present word. The…
último
It is a learned borrowed from Latin ultimus (“farthest; last”). The Latin word is the superlative of an archaic *ulter (“lying beyond”), which survives in the adverbs ultrā (“beyond”) and ultrō…
único
It is borrowed from Latin ūnicus (“one and only, sole”), taken into Spanish as a learned word. Corominas lists it among the learned derivatives of the Latin family of uno, with its first record in…
unidad
It is borrowed from Latin ūnitās (“oneness, unity”), the abstract noun of ūnus (“one”) with the suffix -tās. Wiktionary notes that by surface analysis it is the prefix uni- with -dad. It is one of a…
unir
It is borrowed from Latin ūnīre (“to make into one, unite”), a learned verb. Corominas dated it from the mid-16th century, in Fray Alonso de Orozco, but it is found earlier: once in the Old Spanish…
universidad
It is inherited from Old Spanish universidat, borrowed from Medieval Latin universitas (“university; corporation”). In classical Latin the noun meant “the whole, totality”, later also “a body of…
universo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin ūniversum (“the whole of things, the universe”), the noun use of the neuter of ūniversus (“whole, entire; all together”). The Latin noun rendered the…
uno
It is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one; only one; single”), Old Spanish uno. The indefinite article un has the same origin: it was at first only the apocopated form of the numeral, and in every…
urgencia
It is borrowed from Late Latin urgentia (“pressure, urgency”), a noun formed on the present participle of urgeō (“to press, push”). Wiktionary also allows a formation from Spanish urgir + -encia. It…
urna
It is borrowed from Latin urna (“bucket of a well; cinerary or voting urn; a liquid measure”), a learned word. A dialect variant urnia, in Salamanca, Sayago, El Bierzo, Asturias and Galicia, and in…
usar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *usare (“to use”), a frequentative formed on ūsus (“used”), the past participle of ūtor (“to use”). Medieval Latin texts have usare for “to practise; to enjoy; to…
uso
It continues inherited from Latin ūsus (“use, need, value”). Corominas notes that the word has been in general use at every period and survives in all the western Romance languages: Portuguese uso…
útil
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin ūtilis (“useful”), first recorded in 1438. The Latin adjective is formed from ūtor (“to use”) with the suffix -ilis. De Vaan traces the verb to…
vaca
It is inherited from Latin vacca (“cow”), recorded from 931 in charters with ⟨b⟩ or ⟨v⟩, in literature from the Cantar de mio Cid. The word is common to the Romance languages: Portuguese vaca…
vacilar
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin vacillare (“to sway from side to side, totter”). Corominas dates it to the second half of the 15th century and notes that it was still missing from…
vaina
It is inherited from Old Spanish vaína, inherited from Latin vāgīna (“sheath, scabbard”). The word was pronounced in three syllables, as baína, until late: Sem Tob rhymes it with ayna (“quickly”)…
vainilla
It is a diminutive from Spanish vaina (“pod, sheath”) + -illa, literally “little pod”. The aromatic plant was named after its long fruit, which is shaped like the pod of a bean. vaina itself…
valer
It is inherited from Latin valeō (“to be strong, to be healthy”), already valer in Old Spanish. Latin used the verb also for a remedy that works, a law in force, an influential person, a coin…
valiente
It is inherited from Old Spanish valiente, inherited from Latin valēns (“strong, vigorous”), the present participle of valeō (“to be strong, to be healthy”). The DLE also analyses it within Spanish…
valle
It is inherited from Old Spanish valle, inherited from Latin vallis (“valley”). The shortened val appears beside it from the earliest charters. The same Latin word is Portuguese vale, Galician val…
valor
It is inherited from Late Latin valor (“worth, value”). Old Spanish had the same form, valor. The Late Latin noun is formed from Latin valeō (“to be strong; to be worth”) + -or. In medieval Latin…
vano
It is inherited from Latin vānus (“empty, hollow; vain”). Corominas notes that the word survives in all the western Romance languages, in several with unmistakably inherited forms, and sees no…
vecino
It is inherited from Old Spanish vezino, inherited from Late Latin vēcīnus, from Latin vīcīnus (“neighbouring; neighbour”). The Latin adjective is formed from vīcus (“quarter of a town; village”)…
veinte
It is inherited from Old Spanish veynte, inherited from Latin vīgintī (“twenty”). Menéndez Pidal and Corominas hold that the word was first stressed veínte; Berceo already contracts the two vowels…
velar
1. The word for keeping watch is inherited from Latin vigilō (“to stay awake; to be watchful”). The learned doublet is vigilar, first recorded in Autoridades; the nautical vigía came through…
veloz
It is borrowed from Latin vēlōx (“swift, speedy”), a learned word. The early texts also have the fuller form veloce, in Juan de Mena and Santillana and beside the short form in Palencia's vocabulary…
vencer
It is inherited from Latin vincō (“to conquer, overcome”), through Old Spanish vencer. Corominas notes that it has been in general use at every period and that it is common to all the Romance…
vender
It is inherited from Latin vendo (“to sell”); the Old Spanish form was already vender. It is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese vender, Galician vender, Catalan vendre, French vendre…