Given the history
of the American
continent,
it is not surprising that
Spanish and English
have so affected each
other. Certainly, English
has contributed a
lot to Spanish, but
some scholars claim
that Spanish has contributed
about 10,000
words to English.
Many of these are food terms used in their
original Spanish forms, such as “tamales,”
“taco,” “salsa,” “guacamole,” “enchilada,”
“burrito,” “tortilla,” “nachos,” etc. Others are
variations or even misunderstandings of the
original. Some food words are of indigenous
origin, but came into English via Spanish.
The Náhuatl (Aztec) word “tomatl” became
“tomate” in Spanish and “tomato” in English.
The Náhuatl word “xocolatl” became “chocolate”
in both languages. “Papaya” came from
the West Indies Arawak word “papaya.”
“Banana,” on the other hand, entered Spanish
from the West African languages of
Wolof, Mandingo and Fulani.
A number of animal words also went
directly from indigenous languages into
Spanish and then English. “Puma” originated
in Quechua (Inca), while “jaguar” comes
from “yaguar,” a word of the Guaraní who
live in what is now Paraguay. “Iguana” is a
modification of “iwana,” used by the Arawak
and Carib of the West Indies. “Coyote” is the
same in Spanish and comes from the
Náhuatl “coyotl.” Others come directly from
Spanish: an “armadillo” is the same in Spanish
and means “little armed one.” “Cockroach”
comes from “cucaracha,” and “condor”
is the same in both languages. “Mosquito”
is a diminutive of “mosca,” meaning
“fly”; thus a mosquito is a “little fly.” It is
used the same way we use it in much of Latin
America, but in Costa Rica a “mosquito” really
is a little fly, while what we call “mosquito”
is a “zancudo,” or “long-legged one” (the
word for “stilt” is “zanco”).
When English-speaking explorers reached
what is now the U.S. Southwest in the early
19th century, they encountered an established
Mexican culture. This provided English
with many everyday words. Since the
horse was an essential part of frontier life for
both Mexicans and English speakers, some
of these words involve horseback riding.
“Rodear,” means “to go around,” and “rodeo”
variously means “detour,” “evasion” or
“roundup.”“Lasso” comes from “lazo,” meaning
“bow” or “knot.” “Lariat” comes from “la
riata,” meaning “the rope.” A “pinto,” meaning
“painted” in Spanish, is a horse with two
colors splashed on its body, while a “paint”
has three. “Mustang” comes from “mestengo”
or “mesteño,” a stray or ownerless animal.
The word “hackamore” is a distortion of
“jáquima,” which means “restraint” or “bit,”
and comes from the Arabic “shaqïmah.”
“Ranch,” a common English word today,
hails from the Mexican Spanish “rancho,”
meaning “ranch,” “settlement” or “meat
ration,” but which here in Costa Rica refers
to a small, round, open structure with a
thatch roof. “Arroyo” comes from “arroyo,”
but in Spanish means “stream,” rather than a
gulch. “Corral,” on the other hand, means
the same in both languages.
Even a few cowboy slang words come
from Spanish. “Buckaroo” comes from
“vaquero,” meaning “cowboy.” “Juzgado,”
meaning “tribunal” or “courtroom,” gave us
“hoosegow,” while “vamoose” comes from
“vamos” or “vámonos,” “let’s go.” “Bronco” is
the same word in both languages, but simply
means “wild” or “rough” in Spanish. Finally,
the Spanish word for “horse,” “caballo,”
became “cabayo” in cowboy lingo, and refers
to a nag. You may even remember the lyrics
to the song “Strawberry Roan”: “Down in
the corral standing alone was an old cabayo,
a strawberry roan.”
The word “savvy” comes from “saber,” “to
know”; “sabe,” then, means “he/she knows.”
Some of you may remember the Lone Ranger,
who called his faithful Indian guide “Tonto,”
or “stupid,” and was called by the same “Kemo
Sabe,” that is “Quien Sabe,”“Who Knows,” or,
perhaps mistakenly, “He Who Knows,” “El
Que Sabe.” Does anybody know whether that
was a joke or true prejudice?
Just for the record, here is a partial list of
other words that passed to English from
Spanish:
algebra algebra, from the Arabic aljabr, the reunion of broken parts, or bone setting
cafeteria cafetería, “coffee store”
canyon cañón
comrade camarada, old Spanish for “barracks company” or “roommate”
crimson from old Spanish “cremesín”
filibuster filibustero, “pirate”
flotilla flota, “fleet”; flotilla, “little fleet”
guerrilla guerra, “war”; guerrilla, “small war,” referring to a small raiding party or fighting force
hammock hamaca
macho macho, “male” (for some reason, it also means “blonde” in Costa Rica)
maroon cimarrón, “wild”
peccadillo pecado, “sin”; pecadillo, “little sin”
renegade renegado, “one who has abandoned his religion or his principles” (“negar” means “to deny”)
tobacco tabaco
tornado tornado, the past participle of tornar, “to turn”
vanilla vainilla
yam ñame
All of these cases make some kind of sense. Next time, we’ll take a look at some examples of Spanish words that have stumbled and bumbled their way into English.
