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Learning Spanish & Etymology Pattern-Matching for Nerds

Sombrero, Sombra and Umbrella, Umbrage

The Spanish Sombrero comes from the Latin prefix sub– (“under”) with the Latin umbra (“shade, shadow.”) We also get the Spanish sombra (“shade”) from that same root, as well.

From that same root umbra, we get the English… umbrella. The umbrella does protect you from the sun, actually — think of 19th century aristocratic women walking around with their sunlight umbrellas!

We also get, from the same root, the English to take umbrage — to get angry. Why? The bad things that happened that got you angry usually happened… in the shadows.

The u-mbr root is clearly visible in all the variations.

what is the etymological way to learn spanish?

Nerds love to pattern-match, to find commonalities among everything. Our approach to learning languages revolves (the same -volve- that is in “volver”, to “return”) around connecting the Spanish words to the related English words via their common etymologies – to find the linguistic patterns, because these patterns become easy triggers to remember what words mean. Want to know more? Email us and ask:
morgan@westegg.com

patterns to help us learn spanish:

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For Nerds Learning Spanish via Etymologies