Spanish words from Latin
438 Spanish words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 4).
grande
It is inherited from Latin grandis (“full-grown, large”); the Old Spanish form was already grande. The Latin word meant “grandiose” and “advanced in age”, and was more at home in spoken Latin than…
granero
It is inherited from Latin grānārium (“granary”). Within Spanish it can be read as grano with the suffix -ero. The same Latin word is Catalan graner, Occitan granièr, French grenier, Italian granaio…
gritar
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *crītāre (“to cry out”), which is probably a contraction of Latin quirītō (“to cry out for help, raise a public outcry”). The word is common to the western…
guerra
It is inherited from Old Spanish guerra, borrowed from Medieval Latin werra, which is from Frankish *werʀu (“confusion; quarrel”). The BDELC and García de Diego name a Germanic, Frankish or West…
hacer
It is inherited from Old Spanish fazer, inherited from Latin faciō (“to make, do”). The oldest record is the short infinitive fere of the Glosas Emilianenses, and a charter of 1030 has facer. The…
hambre
It is inherited from Old Spanish fambre, earlier famne, inherited from Vulgar Latin *famen (“hunger”), a Vulgar Latin form of Latin famēs (“hunger”). The DCECH starts from the Vulgar Latin…
hechizo
It is inherited from Old Spanish fechizo, inherited from Latin factīcius (“made by art, artificial”). The Latin adjective is formed from factus (“made”), the past participle of faciō (“to make…
heredar
It is inherited from Late Latin hērēditō (“to inherit”). The Late Latin verb survives in all the Romance languages of Hispania, Gaul, Raetia and Sardinia: Portuguese herdar, Galician herdar…
hermoso
It is inherited from Old Spanish fermoso, inherited from Latin fōrmōsus (“finely formed, beautiful”). Classical Latin had both pulcher and this word; the first, more frequent and more abstract, left…
hombre
It is inherited from Latin homo (“human being, man”); the Old Spanish form was omne. The Latin accusative ⟨hominem⟩ lost its unstressed middle vowel, giving ⟨omne⟩; this was dissimilated to omre…
hombro
It is inherited from Old Spanish ombro, inherited from Latin umerus (“shoulder”). The Latin spelling humerus is late and incorrect. Gómez de Silva puts its ⟨h⟩ down to hypercorrection. The learned…
hora
It is inherited from Latin hōra (“hour”), which was borrowed from Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “period of time, division of the day, hour”). The same Latin word is Portuguese hora, Catalan hora, French heure…
horrible
It is borrowed from Latin horribilis (“terrifying, dreadful”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is formed from horreō (“to bristle, to stand on end; to shudder”) with the suffix -bilis. The Latin…
huir
It is inherited from Old Spanish fuir, inherited from Vulgar Latin fugīre, the form Vulgar Latin used for the classical infinitive of Latin fugere (“to flee”). The Romance languages all point to…
humo
It is inherited from Old Spanish fumo, inherited from Latin fūmus (“smoke”). The same word is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese fumo, Galician fume, Catalan fum, Occitan fum, Italian…
igual
It is inherited from Old Spanish egual, inherited from Latin aequālis (“of the same size or age; equal”), from aequus (“flat, smooth, even; equal”). egual is Berceo's usual form, but igual already…
igualmente
It is formed from Spanish igual (“equal”) + -mente (“-ly”). The earliest texts write it Old Spanish egualmente, egualmientre, egualmiente and ygual mente, with the older form of the adjective…
imagen
It is borrowed from Latin imāgō (“representation, portrait, image”). Frequent at all periods, it soon became a popular word as a religious term. The form omagen in the Libro de Alexandre has a match…
imaginación
It is borrowed from Latin imāginātiō, the noun of action of imāginor (“to picture to oneself”), from imāgō (“image, likeness”). Corominas lists it among the derivatives of imagen, beside imaginar…
imaginar
It is borrowed from Latin imāginor (“to picture to oneself, imagine”), formed from imāgō (“image, likeness”). From the variant maginar comes the popular noun magín “wits, imagination”, first in the…
imperio
It is borrowed from Latin imperium (“command; supreme power; empire”), a learned word first recorded in Berceo. The inherited word of the same family is emperador, a semi-learned form of Latin…
imposible
It is borrowed from Latin impossibilis (“impossible”), one of the learned words of the family of poder. The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and possibilis (“possible”), which in turn is…
inicio
It is a learned borrowed from Latin initium (“beginning”). The Latin noun is formed from ineō (“to go into, enter; to begin”) with the suffix -ium, and the verb from in (“into”) and eō (“to go”)…
inteligente
It is borrowed from Latin intelligēns (“understanding; expert”), a variant of intellegēns. The Latin word is the present participle of intellegō (“to understand”); the spelling with ⟨e⟩ is the more…
intención
It is borrowed from Latin intentiō (“a stretching; attention; purpose”), a learned word. Corominas counts it among the learned words of the family of tender. The same Latin word gave Portuguese…
interés
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin interesse (“compensation; interest on a loan”), the infinitive of the Latin verb “to be between; to matter” used as a noun. The Medieval Latin noun meant damages…
interno
It is borrowed from Latin internus (“inward, internal”), a learned word of the middle of the 15th century. The Latin adjective is formed from inter (“between, among”) with the suffix -nus. The…
inversión
It is borrowed from Latin inversiō (“inversion, transposition”), from invertō (“to turn upside down, invert”) with the suffix -tiō. Corominas lists it, with invertir and inverso, among the learned…
invierno
It is inherited from Old Spanish ivierno, inherited from Late Latin hībernum (“winter”), short for tempus (“time, season”) hībernus (“wintry”). The DCECH's first record of the nasalised form, which…
ir
It is inherited from Latin īre (“to go”). The Romance languages kept the infinitive of the Latin verb only in Spanish and Portuguese, in the Bearnese valleys of Aspe and Barétous and in some…
jueves
It is inherited from Old Spanish jueves, inherited from Latin Iovis (“of Jupiter”), short for the phrase diēs Iovis (“day of Jupiter”). This is the genitive of the god's name, whose nominative is…
juez
It is inherited from Old Spanish júdez, inherited from Latin iudex (“judge”). Corominas calls it a semi-learned descendant: the accusative iudicem passed through júez, still of two syllables, to the…
junco
1. The word for the rush is inherited from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”); Old Spanish junco was also written yunco. It is a word in general use at all periods, and common to all the western Romance…
justicia
It is borrowed from Latin iūstitia (“justice”), a learned word. Although learned, it has been in general use at every period. García de Diego also calls it a learned word. The Latin noun is formed…
juzgar
It is inherited from Latin iūdicāre (“to judge”), through Old Spanish judgar. Corominas treats it under juez, its Latin base iūdex being the source of that word. Wiktionary names the borrowed…
labio
It is borrowed from Latin labium (“lip”), taken in the 16th century to replace Old Spanish labro, which was inherited from labrum. In Latin that form was the more classical one, but the borrowed…
labor
It is inherited from Old Spanish lavor, inherited from Latin labor (“toil, work, task”). Corominas notes that the word was clearly popular in the Middle Ages and that its sound development is that…
lana
It is inherited from Old Spanish lana, inherited from Latin lāna (“wool”). Corominas notes that it has been in general use at all periods and is common to all the Romance languages. The same Latin…
lazo
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *lacium, a simplified form of Latin laqueus (“noose, snare”). Wiktionary gives the Vulgar Latin form as *laceum. The change is common to all the Romance languages…
lengua
It is inherited from Old Spanish lengua, inherited from Latin lingua (“tongue; speech, language”). The word is common to all periods of Spanish and to all the Romance languages. Latin had a short…
letra
It is inherited from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet”), recorded from the beginnings of the language. The same word is Portuguese letra, Asturian lletra, Catalan lletra, Occitan letra, French…
lidiar
It is inherited from Latin lītigāre (“to dispute, quarrel, go to law”). Corominas notes that the Latin verb survives as a popular word only in Spanish and in Portuguese lidar, and that its change of…
llevar
It is inherited from Old Spanish levar, inherited from Latin levāre (“to lighten, relieve; to raise”). The initial /ʎ/ arose in the forms stressed on the root, such as lieva from levat, where the…
local
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Late Latin locālis (“of a place”). Corominas dates it to Alonso de Palencia (1490), but the CDH has it a century earlier, in Aragonese charters of 1396 that…
luna
It is inherited from Old Spanish luna, inherited from Latin lūna (“moon”). The word has the same form in every period of the language and is common to all the Romance languages. Its cognates include…
lunes
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin (diēs) Lūnis (“(day) of the Moon”), a form found in inscriptions, shortened to its second word. Classical Latin said diēs Lūnae or Lūnae diēs, “the day sacred to…
macho
1. The word for “male” is inherited from Vulgar Latin *masclus, the contracted form of Latin masculus (“male”), itself a diminutive of mās (“male”). Old Spanish had maslo, in Berceo, Alfonso X and…
mancha
It is inherited from Old Spanish mancha, inherited from Vulgar Latin *mancla, from Latin macula (“stain, spot”). This is the DCECH's MANCHA I. At an early date the nasal of the initial /m/ spread to…
manco
It is inherited from Latin mancus (“maimed, crippled; incomplete”), which could be said of any injured part of the body. The word is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese manco…
mano
It is inherited from Latin manus (“hand”), and Old Spanish mano has the same form from the first records. The word is general in every period and common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese mão…
mantener
It is inherited from Late Latin manū tenēre (“to hold in the hand; to support”). Corominas calls it a compound common to all the western Romance languages. The Latin phrase joins manū (“with the…
máquina
It is borrowed from Latin machina (“machine, contrivance; scaffolding; stratagem”), which is from Ancient Greek μαχανά (mākhanā́), the Doric form of Attic μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “ingenious device…
marido
It is inherited from Latin marītus (“married; husband”), with the same form in Old Spanish, marido. The Latin word was first an adjective, “married, conjugal”, also used in farming of trees “wedded”…
más
It is inherited from Latin magis (“more”), through Old Spanish maes, later contracted to mas. The older form is found mainly in Leonese documents of 1222 and 1246, and mais in the Libro de Alexandre…
materia
It is borrowed from Latin māteria (“timber; material, matter”), a learned word beside the inherited madera (“wood”). Vox dates the borrowing to the 13th century and notes that it kept the more…
mayo
It is inherited from Old Spanish mayo, inherited from Latin Maius (“May”). Latin used the word short for Maius mensis (“the month of Maia”). The same word is Portuguese maio, Catalan maig, Occitan…
memoria
It is borrowed from Latin memoria (“memory, remembrance”), taken over by the learned route in Old Spanish. Corominas places it among the learned words of the family of remembrar, and dates it to the…
mercado
It is inherited from Latin mercātus (“trade, traffic; market”). The Latin noun is derived from mercor (“to buy, trade”), itself from merx (“goods, merchandise”). The BDELC places it in one family…
merced
It is inherited from Old Spanish merced, inherited from Latin mercēs (“pay, wages, reward”), by a semi-learned path. The same Latin word is Portuguese mercê, Galician mercé, Catalan mercè, Occitan…
metro
1. The word for the measure is borrowed from Latin metrum (“measure, especially of verse”), which is from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”). The DLE gives the Greek word as its source. As the…