Etymology: cognates and common roots
The root Proto-Indo-European root *wer- means to turn or to bend. The nowadays so popular versus (vs.) comes from Latin, from the same *wer-, with the original meaning of "(turn) towards). It became commonplace in English courts as a technical term, because one person "turned against" another. Compare this with another Latin word: adversarius (adversary / adversario), from ad- (towards) and versus (turn).
The term verse / verso also comes from Latin versus, in the sense of turning from one line to the next, and an introvert / introvertido is someone who turns into (intro-) himself or herself. Converse / conversar and conversation / conversación use the root cum- (con / with), originally, living with (others). Anniversary / aniversario is formed from anni-, genitive of annus (año / year) and versus, "returning" every year (notice that the word "return" also has re- plus to turn). Controversy comes from controversia, from contra- (contra / against), opinions turned against each other.
Versus in latin also had the meaning to "to become", as this is reflected in convert / convertir, from con- (con / with) and vertere (to turn), and even in the future auxiliary in German werden. In "wird geschnitten" (literally, will be cut), that wird also comes from *wert-, meaning something like "(con)vertir cortado".
It is not difficult to see the connection between versus, meaning to turn, and vertigo, form the same root, or vertex, a turning point, or vortex, or revert, from re- (back) and versus, to turn, and even vice-versa. But it is more difficult to understand divert / divertir, from dis- (apart, aside), meaning to turn aside, because English borrowed the term probably around the 15th century only with the sense of direction, while in Spanish just kept one of the Latin meanings of the word, which is "turning aside thoughts", with the idea of turning aside worries and job to relax or have fun, which is a concept that anyone in this busy world should understand. Diversity / diversidad is easier to figure out.
Versatile / versátil has the idea of being able to turning into different directions or tasks. Advertise and advertir both come from Latin advertire, to warn, related to adversarius, with the prefix ad- (towards), but while English changed it from to warn to "to take notice", Spanish kept the original meaning of "to warn". The terms advice and avisar are related, but they have no connection with versus. They come from ad meu visu, from (videre, ver / see).
Transverse uses the root trans- (accross) , malversation uses mal- (mal / bad), and I'll let others try invert, evert, pervert, reverse, prose, versicle, subvert, and any others you can think of.
I don't think many people realise how many words are there in common between the two languages. Any other words with common roots you want to share? Especially if it is not obvious that they are related.
13 Answers
Thank you, Lazarus! I don't realise of these similarities unless I read and think about it. It's just fascinating.
I've found this, and it seemed quite interesting to me.
The protoindoeuropean root wel-/wol-, originally meaning "to want, to wish", developed into:
Latin languages:
volo, velle (desear) -> español: voluntad, volición; francés: voulouir, catalán: voler, italiano: volere.
Germanic languages:
German: wollen, and English: will (voluntad). Even well comes from "in a satisfactory manner".
The root deuk- means to guide, to lead.
The verb educar (to educate, to bring up) is formed by the prefix ex- (out) and the verb ducere. Interesting enough that educar means to guide (towards) out.
Seducir (to seduce): se- ducir implies to separate someone from the right way
Deducir (to deduce) : De (meaning going from up to down, to descend) + ducir: to extract a particular idea (down) from a higher and general truth (up).
Ducha (shower): guided water jet
Acueducto (aqueduct) agua + ductus, this is easy to figure out.
Reducir (to reduce) = re (reiteration)+ ducir: to lead, return something to its original state.
Inducir (to induce) = to penetrate or going inside a way
Duque (duke) = the person who leads a province
Conducir (to drive, to conduct) = to lead or bring together. Used for guiding a car (Spanish), to lead an orchestra (English) or referring to the capacity to transmit (to lead) electrons.
Conducta (behavoir) = as well as misconduct.
Another interseting one is gen(schwa)-
king, gentry, gentle, gender, genre, engine, gin(not the drink), gene, genius, kind. . .
Another interseting one is gen(schwa)-
king, gentry, gentle, gender, genre, engine, gin(not the drink), gene, genius, kind. . .
Gen- means clan, tribe or generation.
From the latin 'genus' several Spanish cognates:
Progenie, congénito, general, homogéneo, gentil, gente, gendarme, genio, ingenio, nitrógeno, hidrógeno, ingeniería, genoma, genuino, generosidad, género, primogénito, genealogía, degenerar...
From the variant: gn, as in gnasci
Pregnancia, maligno, benigno, nacer, Navidad, naturaleza, nación.
Power, potent, and possible (and the obvious related words) all come from poti-.
The root deuk- means to guide, to lead.
I'll add a few more to cogumela's examples:
From Latin ducere: Ductile/dúctil (that can be pulled), produce/producir (forth + bring), introduce/introducir (in + lead), duct/ducto (the latter is not used much in Spanish)
For those who play chess, you also have zugzwang, from an Old High German verb that means to pull, akin to the English verb to tow. Also, when you pull together people, you have a team, from Proto-Germanic *taumaz, to pull. Deriving these words from *deuk- is not that straightforward: *deuk- becomes *tuk- and later *taukh-. The verb (and/or noun) tie also has to do with pulling, and also has the initial T.
In German, Zeug (stuff) and ziehen (to pull). In Persian, maybe ???????? (dooshandan), to milk (originally to draw), and in Sanskrit ??? (dogha), milking, although these two could also come from *dheugh (to prepare).
I believe this Proto-Indo-European root *wer is also present in the English 'war', the French 'guerre' and the Spanish 'guerra' and 'guerrilla' the German 'Wehr, wehren, Wehrmacht'. All derived from the meaning 'to turn against' in one form or another. - GerdaD
Interesting suggestion, but I have checked in over 5 etymological dictionaries, and none of them say that; instead, they suggest lorenzo9's root *wers-, meaning to sweep, to drag, shared also by the words worse and worst. The German wurst is explained because their sausages are a mixture of different parts of the meat. "Guerra", like many other war-related terms in Spanish, is from Germanic origin indeed (from *wers- too).
There are: circle, curve in English which match their Spanish counterparts: el circuló, la curva and these are derived from Latin with roots in Proto-Indo_European. Speaking of round things, Latin also had ORB and SPHERE. (Orb sounds as though it is related to curve and circle, but the relationship (if it exists) is obscure.)
Sphere in Spanish is la esfera. ORB also translates as la esfera, if anyone knows of a Spanish term closer to ORB that means ... orb, please let me know. ORB and SPHERE have been traced to ancient Greek, but their ultimate origin is unknown. Perhaps Mycenaean?? Perhaps extra-terrestrial??
Power, potent, and possible (and the obvious related words) all come from poti-.
Good one: the root *poti- means powerful, lord. Add to the English list other derivatives, like omnipotent / omipotente (all + powerful), impotent / impotente, despot / déspota (from Greek "house" + "master")... possession / posesión, possessive / posesivo, Notice that possible means that "can be done or mastered".
It is particularly interesting the case of the Latin root hospit-, which means both guest and host, because it uses both the root ghos-ti (stranger, outsider) and poti- (lord) to symbolize the reciprocal obligation between guest and host. From that we get host / huésped (from Latin *hospes), hospitality / hospitalidad, hostel / hostal, hospital, hospice / hospicio... While in Spanish, huésped is still guest and host, like in Latin, English took two words from the Proto-Indo-European root *ghos-ti: guest, through the Germanic branch, with the sense of stranger first, and host, from Latin, losing its double meaning and becoming just the one who has guests. In Spanish this ambiguity can be avoided using "anfitrión" and "invitado".
In Spanish we also have poderío, apoderar, potente, pujante, potestad,, and very important: the verb poder (also a noun). The word can also be found in Old Persian padishah (master) and Lithuanian patis (husband).
Advertise and advertir both come from Latin advertire, to warn, related to adversarius, with the prefix ad- (towards), but while English changed it from to warn to "to take notice"
Or possibly many centuries ago it was forseen that there would be so much junk available for purchase that the public had to be warned of its low quality :- )
malversation uses mal- (mal / bad)
This one is interesting to me bacause in Russian "Molo(a)" means "small." I wonder if there is any connection.
wurst (a kind of sausage in German and English) also comes from wers, as does worse.
The Vasmer's dictionary says that ?????? and mal- (from malus) are cognates. - lazarus1907
On the same same subject, here ia a song in video by Natasha Korolyova that everybody who can still relate to their childhood will appreciate.
"????????? ??????" (Little Country)
What about decir/declare? And montar/mount?
