Padecer (Spanish for “to suffer”) comes from the Latin pati, meaning, “to suffer.” From that same root, we get the English… passion.

Yes, by definition, passion necessarily entails suffering.  Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know about love?

The Spanish cara (“head”) comes from the same Latin word (cara), also meaning the same, “head.”

From that Latin, we get the English cheer (via French’s chere). Thus, the ch-r of cheer maps to the c-r of cara.

A face — after all — is the most human thing intended to make us thankful (to cheers a toast!) for life. And most faces fill us with enough happiness to make us cheerful!

Suelo is Spanish for “floor” although it is not too common (piso is the more common word). But, very common is subsuelo — the sub-floor, that is: the basement.

This is, unexpectedly, related to a few English words.

Suelo comes from the Latin solum, meaning “ground.”

From solum, we get two English words:

First, soil — yes, the soil is what is on the ground below you!

Second, sole — as in the sole of your shoe. This, too, is below you as you walk.

In all, we clearly see the s-l root staying consistent.

Gremio (Spanish for “union,”, in the sense of workers, unite!; formerly “guild”–which is really just an old-school union!) comes from the Latin Gremium, meaning “round.” How did this transformation happen? Well, a round pen was where you held onto things; it turned into the word for where people got together, which turned into guild (a common reason people got together!) and then, eventually, to mean union.

However, it gets much more interesting. The Latin gremium comes from the proto-indo-european root *ger– meaning…. to get together! From this root, we also get (via Greek) words like congregate (to bring people together) and segregate (to bring people apart!).

Thus, gremio took an interesting turn over the last few thousand years: from the meaning congregate to round to congregate again!

We can see the g-r root clearly in gremio as well as congregate and segregate.

The English recruit and the Spanish crecer (“to grow”) seem like they have nothing to do with each other. But looks can be deceiving!

“Recruit” comes from, via French, the roots re- (“again”) and the Latin crescere, meaning “to grow” — from which we get the Spanish for the same.

Therefore, a recruit is literally a “new growth” — it is how the next generation is reborn!

Interestingly, we also get, from the same root, the English crescent as well.