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 ← ...
- 19.4k
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) ...
- 30k
8
votes
How did "lunar" come to mean both the skin "mole" and the "moon" in Spanish and Portuguese?
Corominas (1967) says the following:
"Lunar, adj., 1490; 'claro de luna', ant. S. XIV, de ahí, por comparación
con una luna llena, parece haber pasado a designar una mancha más o menos
redonda ...
- 2,381
6
votes
Accepted
Conmigo vs. Comigo
Given the context (a song in Portuguese sung by a Brazilian group), I would assume that when written conmigo it's indeed a Spanish version of the song; and when written comigo is a Portuguese (...
- 1,638
5
votes
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
In Spanish it is possible, although uncommon, for the word "gustar" to have the same syntax as in Portuguese. Here is a passage from the Spanish Wiktionary article on gustar:
Si se desea ...
- 1,304
4
votes
How did "lunar" come to mean both the skin "mole" and the "moon" in Spanish and Portuguese?
According to Covarrubias and his etymological dictionary from 1611:
Se dixo por ser efeto de la luna,o porque se fixa en el rostro, o en otra parte, como la luna en su Orbe.
A definition a bit ...
- 77.4k
2
votes
Accepted
"Ser" and "Estar": Spanish vs. Portuguese
Here's what I've noticed about the differences between "ser" and "estar." They're used in the same way in Portuguese and Spanish, but there are some exceptions, such as:
1) when the verb refers to ...
- 2,603
2
votes
Accepted
"Desde un principio" en lugar de "desde el principio"
Ambas formas, desde un principio y desde el principio, existen y son correctas en español. Son muy similares, si no idénticas, en significado.(*)
En cuanto a su uso, sólo "desde el principio" podrá ...
- 29.3k
2
votes
Accepted
How did "lunar" come to mean both the skin "mole" and the "moon" in Spanish and Portuguese?
Los lunares reciben su nombre porque durante miles de años se creyó que se formaban en los niños por influencia de la Luna.
Que el concepto de lunar ("Pequeña mancha en el rostro u otra parte del ...
- 1,548
1
vote
How did "lunar" come to mean both the skin "mole" and the "moon" in Spanish and Portuguese?
La cuestión en sí sería algo más compleja; ¿Cómo terminaron los españoles y portugueses usando "lunar" tanto para referirse a las manchas de la piel como al dibujo en forma de lunar que ...
- 6,112
1
vote
¿Cómo se llama alguien que practica jiu-jitsu brasileño?
Es curioso que ni en la Wikipedia en español ni en la Wikipedia en inglés se menciona cómo se llaman los practicantes de este arte marcial. En cambio, en la Wikipedia en japonés sí que he visto algún ...
- 77.4k
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