Example of Using Etymology to Learn and Remember a Word
I came across a word that I didn't know today...mareada...which means dizzy. So I practiced a technique that I often use to learn and remember a new word. First, I checked the etymology on www.myetymology.com Here's what I found:
Etymology of the Spanish word mareado
the Spanish word mareado
derived from the Spanish word marear
derived from the Spanish word marea
derived from the French word marée
derived from the French word mer
derived from the Latin word mare (sea; sea water)
derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *mori-
derived from the Middle Dutch word mare
So, I could immediately see the connection to "El mar" which I already knew meant "the sea." I could also see that marear is a Spanish word that is most likely a verb (since it ends in ar) that probably means "to make dizzy" OK, so it was simple to figure out that dizzy=seasick. So...how do I remember that it is marear instead of marar, marer or marir? Simple...dizziness has to do with an imbalance in the inner ear.
to make dizzy = sea + ear = marear and mareado and mareada are simply the past participle and adjective.
I highly recommend using this technique for learning new vocabulary. I don't think I will ever forget the Spanish words relating to dizziness and I'm guessing that most of you who read this will never forget it either.
¡Me siento mareado! 
4 Answers
Bumping as a helpful post .
This is useful, particularly if you know other languages. To an extent I benefited from the tail end of what used to be a tradition of classical education in the UK insofar as I'm (just) old enough to have been taught some Latin and Ancient Greek at school. Weirdly (in my opinion) kids of my generation, born in the early 70s, often actually received lessons in Latin before we had lessons in any modern languages. If memory serves me right, my primary school used to send us to the next door secondary school for Latin from age 9 or 10, and Latin was compulsory for 3 or 4 years. Then, after a year or so of Latin, we also got Ancient Greek, frequently back-to-back with Latin (those were very tiring lessons). Only when we began secondary school proper did we receive any modern languages, which in the case of my school were French from age 10 or 11, then German (if we were deemed proficient enough at French to qualify for German, which was dumb because they're quite different languages).
Personally, by age 11 I was taking Latin, Greek and French simultaneously. Despite coming third in French in a class of 30, my French teacher thought I had fluked the end of year test (I hadn't), so refused to recommend me for German, which was disappointing, so I did woodwork instead. However, some of my peers were doing all four languages at the same time !!
Today I speak pretty decent French (but only because I continued it throughout the rest of school and uni), and I can read some Latin. I remember very little Greek other than the alphabet, and I'm hopeless at putting shelves up (my German is better than my carpentry, but only through self-study, and only marginally).
Another useful technique for learning vocabulary, which is different yet similar, and which anyone can use regardless of their knowledge of other languages, is word association between native language and target language. For example, 'vaca' for 'cow': imagine a 'cow' as a kind of 'vacuum cleaner', sucking up grass. In your mind this links the idea of 'cow' with 'vacuum' and 'vac-', hence 'vaca'.
You can have great fun with this technique, and tailor it according to your own personal ideas.
Incidentally, my kid is due to start primary school this autumn when he will receive 30 minutes of Spanish a day from age 5, then they introduce French at age 8, and I don't believe Latin or Ancient Greek are on the school curriculum at all any more, with Chinese being a more likely candidate language.
Here is a website you may be interested in: http://www.spanishetymology.com/spanish/true-spanish-etymology-stories/
I also find learning the etymology of a word makes it easier to remember the word. It is also interesting.
Thank you for taking the time to do this and share it with us. This would be a great link to add to these threads...
