Cognate Cognizance Podcast

mercy — kind and gentle treatment of someone who might not deserve it or of those who have suffered a misfortune; a blessing from the divine merced — the Spanish cognate of the same meanings Middle English took this word from French which had gotten the word from Latin’s merces which is “a price paid for something, wages, reward.” Here’s what merriam-webster.com says about the word’s origin: To th...

As the days heat up, perhaps you might end up suffering from a “calenture.” calenture — a fever supposedly caused by heat, especially tropical heat calentura — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning We took our word from the Spanish word. The Spanish word, in turn, came from Latin’s calere which means “to be warm.” I came upon the English word in an older piece of literature in which the person w...

I like to use the word “missive” to refer to a handwritten letter. I suspect that many people don’t know that word or think I’m silly for using it, but I like the sound of it. It comes from the same Latin root as our cognate duo for today does. emissary — an agent sent somewhere to represent someone or something on their behalf; a representative emisario — the Spanish masculine cognate of the same...

I love words, so it’s probably no wonder that one of my favorite books is my unabridged Webster’s dictionary. The word “word” comes to us from Old English, but its Latin counterpart is verbum , from which we’ve created a number of useful words, including the one that means “too many words.” verbose — a adjective to describe something that contains too many words or someone prone to wordiness (like...

utile — a seldom-used English adjective meaning “useful” útil — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning and the only adjective in Spanish (that I’m aware of) that means “useful” This cognate pair was unknown to me while I was teaching. In fact, until about ten minutes ago I didn’t even know the word “utile” existed in English. This post was going to be about the word “inutility” and its Spanish co...

See the look on this dog’s face? This clearly expresses my own sentiments after coming upon an English word in “The Deerslayer” by James Fenimore Cooper that so clearly seemed to be a cognate of a Spanish word in which I was well versed yet that so clearly did NOT mean what I thought it should. Here is the sentence: “Master March may find it pleasant to traduce us, but sooner or later he’ll repent...

I grew up loving the cartoon Peanuts, and I always could relate to Charlie Brown, especially when he would simply sigh. During my 30 years of teaching, I sighed A LOT — ask any of my former students, and they will tell you that when they heard me sigh, they knew I was annoyed with them. Sighing was my way to release stress and tension without blowing my top — of course, I did that, too, but I trie...

Zenith, peak, culmination, apex, pinnacle — these are all considered synonyms for “apogee,” and they are all words that are very familiar to me, but I don’t see “apogee” used very frequently. I do, however, see its Spanish cognate used. apogee — the farthest or highest point; in space usage, it refers to the point in the orbit of an object (such as a satellite) orbiting the earth that is at the gr...

Back when I was teaching, I had the good fortune of being able to create a couple classes. One of those was Linguistics, and in that class I required my students to do a mini-report each week about a word of their choosing. In the report, they needed to share the word’s “etymology” and in doing that, the students soon came to realize that the bulk of the English words that aren’t true descendants...

In Chapter 6 of “The Sword in the Stone” by T. H. White, young Arthur, known in this story as the Wart, is practicing and learning archery with Sir Ector’s son, Kay, and there is this passage: “They left the targets and had several shots at the popinjay — which was a large, bright-coloured artificial bird stuck on the top of a stick, like a parrot — and Kay missed these also.” Prior to reading thi...

Since the very first time I visited the Prado museum in Madrid, Spain, I knew its name translated to “meadow” in English and that it had been named that due to the meadow that was there when it was first being built in 1785 — it is now surrounded by the city. It was going to be called something else, but everyone called it “el prado,” for “the meadow,” and the name stuck. Recently, I’ve been on a...

School is about to start. When I was young, my first year of school was “kindergarten.” I’ve long known that we got the word from German where it’s a combination of the words “kinder” for “children” and “garten” for “garden.” Spanish uses the very same word. I’m not going to define the word this week because we all know what “kindergarten” is. Instead, I want to point out something that you may or...

I’ve been making my way through all the seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy” on Netflix these past few months, and while I always look away during the gruesome parts, watching it often reminds me of my teaching years. When some of my advanced Spanish students would opt to take the Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) class, they’d often come to my class exclaiming about the useful overlap of the two subjects becau...

Italy’s Mount Etna, a famous volcano situated in Sicily, is in the news today because it has been shooting a large amount of ash and lava into the air. Perhaps it’s no wonder that the Romans, who lived in that part of the world, created a god of fire and made his home under a volcano. His name was Vulcan, also written as Volcanus, and from that name came the Italian word for volcano. volcano — I d...

After being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, my boyfriend has discovered the “salutary” effects of a very strict diet that is keeping his blood sugar numbers low without insulin injections. salutary — an adjective to describe something that promotes health or is curative saludable — the Spanish adjective cognate of the same meaning that typically simply translates to “healthy” Our word of “health”...

Later this month is Easter, so this month’s free post and cognate duo pertain to that holy day, and I’m adding a second duo about the name of the month. Pascha — a lesser-known word meaning “Easter” or “Passover” Pascua — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning/s These words entered Latin from Greek which got its word from Hebrew’s pesach, which translates to “skipping” or “passing over .” These w...

In George Eliot’s wonderful second novel, “The Mill on the Floss,” there is this sentence: “Certain seeds which are required to find a nidus for themselves under unfavorable circumstances have been supplied by nature with an apparatus of hooks, so that they will get a hold on very unreceptive surfaces.” The book isn’t about farming; the sentence is metaphorically describing the spiritual seed that...

levitation — a noun meaning “a rising or lifting in the air” — especially when it involves lifting someone in the air by supernatural means levitaciόn — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning When learning Spanish, one of the common verbs you will encounter is the verb “levantar,” which means “to lift.” The expression “levantar pesas” is “to lift weights,” and it comes up fairly early in vocabula...

As a child of the 80’s, I watched and enjoyed the TV sitcom called “Mr. Belvedere” about a stodgy English butler who comes to live with an American family. Until recently, I’d always associated the word “belvedere” with that English butler, but then I came upon this passage in Calvino Italo’s masterpiece, “If on a winter’s night a traveler:” Today I reached the belvedere from which you can glimpse...

I’ve been writing “Cognate Cognizance” for three and a half years now. Initially, I wrote it twice a week before settling into the weekly rhythm, so I’ve now written well over 200 entries, and I’ve gained subscribers along the way. Many of you were not with me when I started this project, so I thought I’d take today to reshare the first three word entries as well as the initial explanatory post to...

commence — a verb that simply means “to begin” or “to start” comenzar — the Spanish verb cognate of the same meanings The French verb is “commencer,” and that’s where we took our word from. Strangely enough, these words go back to Latin’s initiare which clearly means “to initiate,” which also means “to start” or “to begin” something. I say “strangely enough” because “commence” doesn’t look like it...

medusa — when not capitalized, it’s another word for “jellyfish” medusa — the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese word for “jellyfish” The French word is quite similar, too, and all these words come from the mythological Gorgon who had snakes for her hair. Since jellyfish have a part that resembles a head and then tentacles hanging from it that resemble snakes, they were given the name “medusa” in ma...

Today I’m discussing another cognate duo that never came up as such in all the 30 years in which I taught Spanish because the English word is rarely used. antipathetic — an adjective meaning “arousing antipathy, which is a strong feeling of dislike”; essentially it describes someone who is unfriendly or an unpleasant thing antipático — the masculine Spanish cognate that is always translated as “un...

Let us sally forth into the undiscovered realm of cognates that Tammy (me) didn’t know until recently. I’ve long used and been aware of the word “sally,” but until recently, while reading “Don Quixote de la Mancha” in both Spanish and its English translation, I hadn’t given any thought to “sally” having a very obvious cognate in Spanish. Now, however, my own cognate cognizance has grown. Take a “s...

The above photo was taken many years ago in Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota, by my beloved uncle, Paul Filsinger. He loved the Black Hills, and he loved photography. Sadly, he passed away four years ago today at the age of 60. He was one of my favorite people, and I continue to honor his memory and his photographic talent whenever I can — three of his photos grace the covers of three of my six nove...