41
votes
Accepted
Etymologically, why do "ser" and "estar" exist? / Etimológicamente, ¿por qué existen "ser" y "estar"?
Way back in the times of the Latin language, there were two different verbs, but not with the same meaning as today:
sum, es, esse, fui1, meaning "to be" (Spanish: "ser", "estar", "haber"). This was ...
- 77.3k
32
votes
Why is "la Gestapo" feminine?
In all the Romance languages, gestapo is feminine despite its ending. It is most likely that whichever language first imported it (probably either French or Italian) figured that because gestapo ...
- 29.9k
23
votes
Accepted
Why are Spanish adverbs formed using the feminine?
(English version; loose Spanish translation follows)
Latin mens, mentis produced ablative mente
This practice began all the way back in Classical Latin, passed into Vulgar Latin and Proto-Romance and ...
- 2,030
22
votes
What's that funny "illo" I keep hearing in Southern Spain?
Indeed, if you came to live to Southern Spain (the Andalusian region), probably you'll be hearing that word a lot, depending on the city you are living in. You may hear it more often in Sevilla, but ...
- 77.3k
22
votes
Why do we use "conmigo" but not "sinmigo"?
The preposition "con" (with) comes from the Latin preposition "cum" and in that language when using pronouns, they would put "cum" at the end so instead of saying "cum me" they would say "mecum" (with ...
- 414
20
votes
Why is “homework” a “debt” in Spanish?
Additionally, another meaning of "deber" (specially as a noun) is "duty" / "obligation". So, "deberes" abbreviates "deberes escolares (a ser realizados en ...
- 201
18
votes
Accepted
¿De dónde viene la expresión "me cago en la puta"?
Las expresiones insultantes empiezan muchas veces por me cago en...,
siendo típica la referencia a la madre (en la madre que te parió, en
tu puta madre, en la puta de oros, en la puta de bastos, ...
- 2,407
18
votes
Accepted
¿Por qué no decimos "crocodilo"?
¿Sabíais que en el DLE, de hecho, está registrada la palabra crocodilo? Dice que es voz poco usada, pero parece que algo se usa a fin de cuentas.
En todo caso, ambas formas (crocodilo y cocodrilo) ...
- 77.3k
18
votes
Accepted
Does "carné de conducir" involve meat?
Carné (note the accent on the e), also spelt carnet, comes from French carnet which means "booklet" or "notebook". The Spanish word carné is also used to refer to an ID card, a ...
wimi♦
- 12k
17
votes
Accepted
Why do we use "conmigo" but not "sinmigo"?
Origin of conmigo
In Latin, "with me" was expressed mecum ("mí con"). Over time this word evolved phonologically to the point where the original "with" sense needed to be ...
- 19.3k
16
votes
Accepted
¿De donde viene la expresión "equilicuá"?
Viene del italiano eccoli qua, Qué significa literalmente "helos acá" o "acá están". Respecto de ecco en italiano, dice el enlace:
si unisce ai pronomi personali atoni mi, ti, ci, vi, lo, la, le, ...
- 3,158
16
votes
Accepted
¿Qué casos existen en el español de etimologías "cíclicas"?
Si buscamos "del esp" en el DIRAE podemos ver algunos casos de palabras con etimologías circulares:
sabir
Del fr. sabir, y este de saber1.
m. Ling. Lengua franca de base románica.
popurrí
...
- 77.3k
16
votes
Accepted
¿Por qué se llama "cubo" si es redondo?
Hay dos etimologías aquí:
Palabra
Signifocado
Etimología
cubo 🪣
recipiente para líquidos
del latín cupa (via esp. cuba) "barrica"
cubo ◻️
forma geométrica
del latín cubus "forma ...
- 19.3k
15
votes
Accepted
Origin of the name "Jesucristo"
The Latin Iesus is an irregular form of the 4th declension. (The Latin declensions are like verb conjugations in Spanish, but applied to nouns).
Iesus is in the singular nominative case: the "...
- 16.5k
15
votes
Accepted
What are the origin, meaning and connotations of "gringo" in Spanish?
English with Original Quotes in Spanish
(Answer with quotes translated below)
The overwhelming evidence is that gringo originated in Spain in the 1700s or earlier from griego, ‘Greek’, in the sense ...
- 509
15
votes
Accepted
Why does Spanish have three different command forms (positive/negative tú, usted)
Depending on how one counts, Spanish has a great deal more than three forms for commands.
There are only three true imperative forms of each verb (I'll use the verbs hablar, comer, and vivir for my ...
- 29.9k
15
votes
Why is a "jack" called "un gato"?
To complement what was said by guillem and Carlos Alejo, there are several other cases in which we give animal's name to the tools and vice versa, depending on some physical resemblance, as a metaphor....
- 16.5k
15
votes
Accepted
Why do "beer" and "cherry" have similar words in Spanish and Portuguese? What is the historical origin of this coincidence?
It's coincidence - both these words were similar in Latin (and hence maintained their similarity through to Spanish), but ultimately come from unrelated origins:
cereza esp ← ceresia vulg lat ← ...
- 19.3k
14
votes
Accepted
¿Cuál es el origen del prefijo "requete-"?
En la web de la RAE se puede consultar el mapa de diccionarios históricos por lemas. Si consultas ahí el término, verás que existe tanto en el diccionario de 2001 como en el de 1992, pero no antes (el ...
- 77.3k
13
votes
Accepted
Why in Spanish "putting horns" means to cheat your partner?
To wear horns is an expression belonging to Western culture and is not exclusive to the Spanish language, as it is used at least in Spanish (Poner cuernos), French (Mettre des cornes), and Italian (...
- 3,158
13
votes
Accepted
¿Qué tiene que ver "acérrimo" (aplicado a personas) con "acre"?
Acre es un cultismo importado del latín (acer, acris) en el siglo XVI. Acérrimo no deriva de acre, sino que también se importó como cultismo por la misma época, directamente del latín acerrimus, ...
- 5,586
13
votes
¿Por qué en español hay tan pocas palabras acabadas en "u"?
Históricamente, la -u final de los étimos latinos tras la pérdida de -m (acusativo) se abría en -o, con lo que, teniendo en cuenta que la inmensa mayoría del vocabulario español procede del latín, es ...
- 2,347
13
votes
Accepted
¿Existen palabras con construcción similar a "penúltimo"?
Sí, por ejemplo península
península
Del lat. paeninsŭla.
f. Tierra cercada por el agua, y que solo por una parte relativamente estrecha está unida y tiene comunicación con otra tierra de extensión ...
- 47.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Paso de B a U: ¿evolución fonética o falta de ortografía?
Vamos por partes.
En primer lugar no es estrictamente correcto decir que "B y V se pronuncian /b/". Las letras "B" y "V" se pronuncian iguales y formalmente se corresponden con el fonema /b/, pero la ...
- 39.3k
13
votes
Accepted
¿Por qué en español decimos "zorro" en vez de un derivado del latín "vulpes"?
La razón es así: muchos nombres de animales solían ser palabras tabú. La gente tenía miedo de llamar a los animales salvajes y destructivos por sus nombres "reales" y los sustituían por ...
- 19.3k
13
votes
Accepted
Are "grúa" and "grulla" etymologically related?
They are indeed related:
... grúa, utilizada en castellano desde el siglo XV para designar una máquina destinada a levantar pesos, por su semejanza con la figura de una grulla, de largo pescuezo y ...
- 19.3k
13
votes
Why is “homework” a “debt” in Spanish?
It is not a mistake in any sense to ask about the origins of words or wonder about their etymological associations. It might be seeing too much into things, though. I personally don't feel a strong ...
- 39.3k
12
votes
Accepted
How did the syntactical strucutre “me gusta” come to be in Spanish? It seems to be different from its Latin root and other Romance languages
Consider another sensory verb (because that's what gustar originated as) oler:
Huelo algo terrible.
I smell ( = perceive sensorily) something terrible
Huelo a algo terrible
I smell ( = emit an odor) ...
- 29.9k
12
votes
Accepted
What is the etymology of 'gafas'?
In 1611, Covarrubias defined the term "gafas" as following (text adapted):
GAFAS, instrumento con que se arma la ballesta [...] porque hace curvar y torcer la verga de la ballesta hasta encajarla ...
- 77.3k
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