5 French words with Spanish roots
1 min readJun 22, 2022
- Camarade: this language is popular among communists, but this French derives from the Hispanic, Spanish language “Camarada” which used in a military context.
- Cédille: a typical French letter “ç” derived from the Spanish “Cedilla”. It was highly used during the 7th-12th centuries. As time passed, its use was replaced by “z” e.g., cabeça/cabeza
- Guitare: Formerly, French used the word “guiterne” and now it changed to “guitare” which has its roots in Spanish: “Guitarra” (“guit” from sanskrit sangita ‘music & “târ” or ‘string’ in Persian).
- Tomate: this word had several times replaced i.e., “pomme d’amour” (1549), “pomme d’or” (1672) or “pomate” (1718). Finally, tomate (Spanish: tomata) entered the dictionary of the Academie Francais in 1835.
- Chocolat: The Mayan civilisation called this “the drink of the gods”. In the 15th century, the Aztecs used it as currency. Later, Spanish traveller Hernán Cortés came to the Americas and brought chocolate to Spain. This is how chocolate became known in France, thanks to the marriage of Louis XIII to Anne d’Autriche, daughter of Felipe 3 de España.
