Is there a connection between "cuchillo" and "cuchara"?

Question

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 comes from verb "cuchar".

So it looks like there are no real connections there, maybe it's only this, but I still see that both words share the common part "cuch". And it seems to me that cuchillo also comes from cuchar, with just adding the suffix -illo.

So how come that the Latin word cultellus transforms itself from knife to something spoon-like?

Answer 1

No. As you say, they have different roots:

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• PIE *(s)kelH- ("to cut")
  • Latin culter ("knife; razor")
    • Latin cultellus ("small knife; dagger")
      • Spanish cuchillo

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• PIE *kongʰ- ("shell, mussel")
  • Ancient Greek κόγχη (kónkhē, "mussel")
    • Ancient Greek κοχλίας (kokhlías, "spiral, snail shell")
      • Latin cochlea ("snail; snail shell")
        • Latin cochleāre ("spoon")
          • Old Spanish cuchar ("spoon")
            • Spanish cuchara

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The reason their modern forms look more similar than might be otherwise expected from their Latin roots is explained here:

Latin /-l/ in the -ŭlt- sequence developed in the same way as the syllable-final velar consonants considered in 5.1. That is, it semivocalized and then caused the following consonant to palatalize:

• cŭltĕllum [koɫˈtεllo] > [kojˈtεllo] > [kuˈtʃjeʎo] > [kuˈtʃiʎo] cuchillo ‘knife’
• mŭltum [ˈmoɫto] > [ˈmojto] > [ˈmutʃo] mucho ‘much’

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Source:

^{The Linguistics of Spanish: History: Consonants: 5. Semivocalization of syllable-final velars and /-l/: 5.2 Syllable final /-l/, Ian Mackenzie}

Answer 2

If you follow through another step with the DRAE you'll find that it indicates the etymology of cuchar as the Latin word cochleāre; according to latin-dictionary.org this means spoon and was originally a spoon for extracting snails from their shells; snail being cochlea. So actually cuchillo has come further in form from its Latin root (cultell- to cuchill- vs cochle- to cuch-).

Answer 3

I would say the roots are different. I think it is cuchill (cuchillo, cuchillazo,...) and cuchar (cucharilla, cuchara, cucharazo) so they don't have the same root.