Spanish words from Portuguese
9 Spanish words with Portuguese in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
banana
It is probably borrowed from Portuguese banana, a word of West Africa. Corominas calls its origin uncertain but apparently a language of West Africa, the DLE calls it a word of the Congo, and Cunha…
caramelo
It is borrowed from Portuguese caramelo, which meant “icicle” as well as “caramel”. The Portuguese word continues Late Latin calamellus (“little reed”), a diminutive of calamus (“reed”) with the…
coco
Corominas explains it as an expressive word of children's language, which first named galls and other round fruits, then the bogeyman, whose head was shown as such a fruit, and finally the coconut…
criollo
It is borrowed from Portuguese crioulo, a derivative of criar (“to raise, breed”): in Brazil the word meant first a slave born in the master's house, and a Black person born in the colonies as…
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…
lancha
It is borrowed from Portuguese lancha, which is from Malay lancar (“quick, nimble”). The Portuguese brought the word from the East: it first appears about 1540 in the Peregrinação of Mendes Pinto as…
mango
1. The word for the handle is inherited from Old Spanish mango, inherited from Vulgar Latin *manĭcus, a derivative of manus (“hand”). Corominas explains the Vulgar Latin word as a Romance derivative…
vera
The word for an edge or bank is of uncertain origin. Corominas considers it probably borrowed from Portuguese beira (“edge, bank”), a much more common word in Portuguese and Galician, recorded there…
volcán
It is borrowed from Portuguese volcão, then spelt ⟨volcam⟩, from Latin Vulcānus (“Vulcan, the god of fire; fire”). Corominas takes the Spanish ending -án as the sign of a Portuguese source: the…