The Spanish for “equal”, par, has a few useful parallels in English. All — in Spanish and English — come from the same Latin root par meaning “equal”.

• Pair – A pair is really two equals together, literally.
• Peer – Your peer is someone who is your equal, or at least at an equal level to you.
• Disparage – is literally to note that someone is not your equal, with the dis- negative prefix before the p-r root.

In all of these, we can see the p-r mapping consistently and easily.

The fun, and everyday, Spanish word borracho is…. drunk. Although it sounds nothing like the English “drunk” it does have a subtle cousin in English: inebriated. Although they don’t look the same, we can see the parallel if we look with squinted eyes:

The b-r-ch root of borracho maps to the b-r in (in)-b-r-t. The English version sounds more Latinate because we added the in- prefix for emphasis at the beginning.

The English sincere is from the Latin “sine cera” — literally, “without wax.”

From that same root is… the Spanish, cera, for “wax” (not to mention, the Spanish sin, also meaning, “without.”) The c-r root is easy to see in both words.

However, what does “wax” have to do with “sincerity”? Well, wax was used to make masks — and makes you hide your face, hide your emotions, hide your true self. Without wax, your face, your emotions, and your true self would be exposed to the world: you would become sincere.

The everyday Spanish word facil, meaning “easy” is the exact opposite — literally — of the English, difficult.

Both come from the latin facere, meaning, “to do” (hence the Spanish hacer and the English fact, as well).

So, facil — easy — is literally, doing! Doing is easy, we hope.

Difficult is really just de-facil : that is, not facil. Now that is easy, indeed!

The connection becomes clear when we remember the f-c-l root in both words!

Todo (Spanish for “all; everything”) comes from the Latin for the same, totus. From that same Latin root, we also get the English… total. Anything that’s total is really all-encompassing, right? Hannah Arendt would certainly say that about a totalitarian government!

We can see the t-d to t-t mapping very clearly!

Alegre, Spanish for happiness, has a close English cousin in alacrity (an SAT word meaning “eagerness” or “cheerful readiness”).

Both come from the Latin alacritas meaning the same as the English.

It’s funny, to me at least, how the word for eagerness turned into the word for happy in Spanish: there is a strong and ancient correlation between being willing to do things, and excited about them — and being happy.