Cognate Cognizance Podcast

Just looking at the above photo gives me “gustatory” delight, but until a few nights ago, I hadn’t heard this word. My boyfriend loves to watch cooking shows, and one of his favorites is “Beat Bobby Flay.” I was only halfway watching it, but Bobby spoke a sentence in which he used the word “gustatory.” One of Bobby’s celebrity hosts chuckled and repeated the word, and I experienced one of those mi...

primaveral — an adjective meaning “relating to early springtime” primaveral — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning When I taught Spanish, the months of the year were easy for students to remember because all of them, except January/Enero, are cognate duos, but the four words for the seasons were difficult for them to remember because they don’t look anything like our English words. Some student...

Anyone who enjoys taking a polar plunge knows how “gelid” the waters of a place like the one in the above photo can be. gelid — an adjective meaning “icy” or extremely cold gélido — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning This winter has been especially “gelid” in my opinion, but I’m not fond of cold weather at all, so I may be exaggerating a bit (but only a bit). “Gelid” and its Spanish counterpa...

caseous — cheesy or “resembling cheese” caseoso — the masculine Spanish cognate of the same meaning caseosa — the feminine Spanish cognate of the same meaning This is an English word that I wish I’d known when I was still teaching Spanish. Food vocabulary is extensive, yet the commonly used Spanish food words are an important part of any Spanish curriculum, and they are the words that teenagers mo...

affable — an adjective describing someone who is warm and friendly and pleasantly easy to talk to afable — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning The more “affable” a television or radio host is, the better his or her show will do because people will want to talk to him, and viewers and listeners will want to tune in to listen. When we have problems, we want a friendly, avuncular guy or a warm, m...

These two cats look as though they are about to go at it with each other. Perhaps, if they could speak, they could settle their problems through “disputation” instead. Let’s begin, though, with the word “dispute.” dispute — a noun meaning a quarrel or a verbal debate about something disputa — the Spanish cognate of the same meanings, more commonly used for a quarrel “Dispute” can be used as a verb...

incarnadine — an adjective that means “flesh-colored” or “pale pink” but that also means “blood-red” and “crimson” encarnado — the masculine Spanish adjective of the same meaning encarnada — the feminine Spanish adjective of the same meaning In English, the word “incarnate” can also be used as an adjective meaning the same as the above words, but it more commonly means that something is “invested...

refulgent — an adjective meaning “shiny” or “brilliant” refulgente — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning These two words come to us from Latin’s fulgēre which means “to shine.” The cognate duo of “fulgent” in English and “fulgente” in Spanish also come from that Latin verb. “Fulgent” and “fulgente” essentially mean the same as “refulgent” and “refulgente.” If something is “fulgent” then it is...

perdition — a noun meaning “eternal damnation” or “hell” perdiciόn — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning First, I’m going to share the following information taken from merriam-webster.com: Perdition began life as a word meaning "utter destruction"; that sense is now archaic, but it provides a clue about the origins of the word. "Perdition" was borrowed into English in the 14th century from Ang...

grace — for purposes of this word as a cognate, this means a pleasing effect or charm gracia — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning “Grace” has many definitions in English, and those translate in a variety of ways into Spanish, but the words “grace” and “gracia” come from Latin’s gratia which means “favor, charm, thanks.” It’s that last sense of the word upon which I want to focus your attentio...

adjutant — one who assists or helps ayudante — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning At first glance, you might not think these two words are cognates because of the variations in their spellings, but they are. “Cognate,” by definition, simply means that things are related by a common ancestor, and these two words descend from the same Latin word of adjūtāre. Knowing that the job of an “adjutant...

phantasma — a specter or apparition or something created by the imagination or fancy fantasma — the Spanish cognate of the same meanings (the word is the same in Italian and Portuguese, too, with slight differences in pronunciation, and it is spelled only slightly differently in French — fantasme ) You may be wondering if I’ve accidently added a letter to the word “phantasm,” but I assure you that...

If you didn’t open my email last week, I want to explain again that since I’ve been writing “Cognate Cognizance” for over a year now, I’ve decided to make two posts a month available only to paying subscribers. That will start next week. If you enjoy receiving these each week and feel that they are beneficial to you, then please opt to become a paying subscriber — it’s only 5.00 per month or 55.00...

rugose — an adjective meaning “wrinkled” or being full of wrinkles rugoso — the masculine Spanish and Italian cognate of the same meaning rugosa — the feminine Spanish and Italian cognate of the same meaning These cognates come from the Latin ruga which means “wrinkle.” The word “ruga” exists in English, too, where it refers to an anatomical wrinkle or fold found inside us, like in our stomach lin...

Over 500 years ago, Columbus headed west out of Spain on his historical trip. Whether you credit him with “finding” what is now known as the Americas or not, he encountered an indigenous group of people called the Taíno in the Caribbean, and that encounter led to the introduction of certain words into the Spanish language through word borrowing. When one culture comes into contact with a different...

salient — an adjective meaning that something is prominent or conspicuous or projects out, like a “salient nose” saliente — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning, a “nariz saliente” I’m going to admit that I didn’t know this word until I began teaching a Linguistics class about ten years ago. In that class, my primary focus was on increasing my students’ vocabularies by having them learn less-co...

I’ve been writing these word posts for a year now. It’s hard to believe. I’ve covered over a hundred words and their cognates because I started this as a twice weekly posting, but then I decided to drop it down to once a week. If you’ve been with me from the start, thanks for sticking with me. If you’ve joined somewhere along the way, thanks for coming along for the ride. I’m going to continue doi...

majesty — sovereign power; a royal personage, or, when capitalized, a title used to address or refer to the reigning king or queen majestad — the Spanish cognate of the same meanings I felt compelled to address this word after the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, last week. After such a long reign, there will be many tributes to her, so this is my very humble addition to those. I enjoyed t...

adumbrate — to cast a shadow over something; to foreshadow adumbrar — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning “Adumbrate” is not a very common word in English, and I don’t think it’s cognate counterpart in Spanish is highly used either; however, the root of these two words comes from Latin’s umbra which means “shade” or “shadow.” In English, the word “umbra” also means “shade” or “shadow,” and som...

Check out this “quintet” of giraffes! I recommend you hit the audio playback arrow above for this episode. quintet — any group of five persons or things quinteto — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning There aren’t many English-Spanish cognates that begin with the letter Q. In Spanish, you will only find the letter “Q” used when it’s followed by the combinations of “UE” or “UI.” That’s it. If yo...

jubilate — to rejoice and show great joy jubilar — the Spanish verb cognate of the same meaning The adjective “jubilant” has masculine, “jubiloso,” and feminine, “jubilosa,” (as well as plural — “jubilosos” and “jubilosas”) counterparts in Spanish. The noun “jubilation” is simply “júbilo” in Spanish. I chose the verb “jubilate,” which is “jubilar” in Spanish, because it means something else in Spa...

castor — a beaver castor — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning I recently visited Agate Fossil Beds National Monument with my daughter who is one year away from becoming a full-fledged paleontologist — to read about our trip, click here: Agate and other fossil stops While we were there, I read about and saw a film about these ancient corkscrew-shaped burrows that were discovered at Agate in 18...

flora — the plants that are characteristic of a region or time period flora — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning First, I want to share with you this concise explanation from merriam-webster.com: Flora means "flower" in Latin, and Flora was the Roman goddess of spring and flowering plants, especially wildflowers and plants not raised for food. She was shown as a beautiful young woman in a lon...

reunion — a gathering of people who have not been together for some time reuniόn — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning, but it’s more commonly used to mean a “meeting” (thus the reason for the above photo) In honor of my upcoming class “reunion,” I thought I’d address this word today. As I mentioned in the definitions above, though, the Spanish cognate is used more to designate “meetings” like...

peregrine — an adjective meaning that you have a tendency to wander peregrino — the masculine Spanish cognate noun that translates to “pilgrim” peregrina — the feminine Spanish cognate noun that also translates to “pilgrim” As you can see, we don’t use the word “peregrine” in English to mean “pilgrim,” which is what it means in Spanish, so on the surface it may not appear to be a cognate, but hope...