The origins of terms and their development through history.
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Origin of “vos” pronoun
How did the vos personal pronoun come to be? Is it etymologically related to vosotros in any way? Did it develop before or after the other personal pronouns used today (tú, usted, vosotros, etc)? Was ...
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1answer
93 views
What is the etymology of the “diéresis” or “crema”?
This entry of the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas explains the uses of the diéresis or crema (the ¨ mark) in Spanish (it is mandatory over a u to indicate that this vowel must be pronounced in the ...
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1answer
87 views
What is the origin of the word “tascalate”?
Another unusual Spanish word I collected in my travels is tascalate.
It's a drink in Chiapas, Mexico and there are Wikipedia articles about it in English and in Spanish.
But it's not in Wiktionary ...
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2answers
242 views
Is there a connection between “cuchillo” and “cuchara”?
Do these two words have any common root? I looked up in the RAE, and didn't find there any connection between these words. According to the RAE, cuchillo comes from Latin "cultellus", and cuchara ...
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2answers
2k views
Spanish etymology resources
Many questions on this site have been about the etymology of a particular word or phrase. For English, resources like the Oxford English Dictionary often give researched etymologies full of details ...
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2answers
121 views
Origin of 'r' in 'rencontrar'
The Spanish equivalent of the English word "encounter" is "rencontrar." Why does the Spanish version have the beginning "r" when the English one doesn't?
The source is the Spanish version of "Tea ...
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vote
2answers
173 views
Words and phrases with non-evident prejudice
Hace poco aprendí que el origen de la palabra algarabía es la pronunciación de árabe en la lengua árabe. Otro ejemplo notable es la palabra morisqueta.
¿Existen otras palabras o frases de común uso ...
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2answers
104 views
Etymology of “caber”. Why does it share conjugation with “saber”?
Español
¿Alguien me puede explicar por qué los verbos "saber" y "caber" tienen la misma conjugación?
No me sorprende que "saber" sea irregular, que es un verbo muy común, y en todo idioma los verbos ...
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3answers
126 views
¿De dónde proviene la palabra 'meacamas'?
¿Cuales son el origen y significado de la primera parte de esa palabra, es decir, lo del 'me'?
Si la primera parte es una forma abreviada de meter, o la de otro verbo semejante, en ese caso no está ...
