Some thoughts about the origins and meanings of the term bizarro

Finding out about the origin and meanings of words is one of the areas of language study that I enjoy most, mainly because every time I analyze a particular term, I achieve a better knowledge about its hidden aspects. This also provides me with a better understanding of the nature of [...]

The terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Latino Spanish’

The Spanish language term latino (’Latino‘ has been used and abused for quite a while. Words like these can become widely popular and used very frequently, in most cases without the users making a little effort to find out about the true nature of such terms.
The word latino is [...]

‘I love chocolate’ …I know that, but do you know about the origin of the word chocolate?

In my professional teaching experience it’s very common to find out that many students are often unaware about lots of the aspects relating to the nature of the Spanish language vocabulary when they start their learning process.
For example, they often find it surprising that a Spanish word like chocolate or tomate comes from Pre-Columbian languages. [...]

The word ‘resiliencia’ came to Spanish via English

Until today I didn’t know that the word ‘resiliencia’ was used in Spanish. I have always used resilience or resilient as terms fully associated with the English language. Then today I received in my mailbox an email from ‘La Palabra del Día’ (www.elcastellano.org/palabra.html), in which as usual for this [...]

A Spanish speaking gentleman doesn’t need a horse

The Spanish word caballero derives from Late Latin caballarius, (horse groom) which in turn comes from Latin caballus (horse), according to The Free Dictionary. Whenever words like this are encountered in my Spanish classes, students find it very curious and amusing to know what the words actually mean.
Caballero in its more widely used modern [...]

The usefulness of etymology in the study of Spanish

 
During my many years of teaching Spanish to students from all walks of life in Melbourne, I have always stressed to [...]