One of the most widely consumed foods in the word is rice, known as arroz in Spanish. Interestingly, Spain accounts for nearly 30% of rice production in the EU, only second to Italy! Latin American Pronunciation European Pronunciation The word arroz is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic الرَّوْز (ar-rawz), which ultimately comes from Arabic أَرُزّ (ʔaruzz, …
The fruit of the olive tree is known as the aceituna. The word aceituna comes from the Hispanic Arabic word az-zaytúna, which derives from the classical Arabic اَلزَّيْتُونَة (zaytūnah), which came in turn from the ancient Aramaic, zaytūnā. Olive oil was called az-zait. Latin American Pronunciation European Pronunciation Aceituna is a feminine noun and takes the …
The fifth colour in the rainbow is blue. Blue in Spanish is azul and comes from lapis lazuli, lazulī is the genitive form of the Medieval Latin lazulum taken from the Arabic لَازُوَرْد (lāzuward) and Persian لاجورد (lâjvard) both meaning sky or heaven. Lapis is the Latin word for stone, so lapis lazuli literally means ‘stone from the sky‘ or ‘stone …
Let’s look today at another important member of the family. The brother of your mother or father, your uncle, is known as tío in Spanish. It was inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese tio, originating from Late Latin thīus, from Ancient Greek θεῖος (theîos). Latin American Pronunciation European Pronunciation Tío is a masculine noun, and of course, …
The Spanish word for the fruit apple, manzana, is from an Iberian vulgar dialect word mattiana, which is a shortened form of the Vulgar Latin mālum matianum, a specific type of apple, “Apples of Matius.” Mattiana became mazana or maçana in Old Spanish. Latin American pronunciation European pronunciation Manzana is a feminine noun, so it takes the following definite …
The Spanish word for animal should be incredibly easy for English speakers to remember as it is spelled in exactly the same way (albeit with a slightly different pronunciation)! Latin American Pronunciation European Pronunciation As in English, the Spanish animal can act as both a noun, describing the living things themselves, or an adjective, denoting …