Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:56:30 -0800 (PST): hazchem <hazchem@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
in sci.lang:

In my Spanish class last night we were learning the words for tapas
and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. This seems to
be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words.

I was thinking the 'al-' derives from the Arabic definite article,
while the 'me' could be a prefix meaning 'place of' or something. This
leaves the triconsonontal root NDR. Does NDR mean anything in Arabic
or any Semitic language?

I doubt if Arabic is involved in this case. For what it's worth, the
Portuguese word is "amêndoa", which according to the Porto Editora
dictionary has the etymology:
Greek amygdála > Classical Latin amygdala > Vulgar Latin amyndula >
Portuguese amêndoa.

If the Spanish word has the same origin, apparently the l turned into
r, a development more often seen in Portugese, but there are more
examples of it in Spanish too: pt árvore, es árbol, fr arbre < Latin
arbore.

We also learned that 'olive' is either 'oliva' or 'aceituna'. I would
guess that 'oliva' comes from Latin and before that Greek and I know
'aceituna' comes from the Arabic zaytoun.

Probably, yes. Portuguese azeite and azeitona are also from Arabic.


--
Ruud Harmsen, http://rudhar.com
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... leaves the triconsonontal root NDR. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... leaves the triconsonontal root NDR. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... leaves the triconsonontal root NDR. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... I see that in this case, the origin is likewise Latin, "amandala", which is supposedly a corruption of "amygdala", though I can't imagine a direct transition from stressed to stressed. ... Yes, that's correct, except possibly for the Greek origin part, though the Greek word appear at least to be related. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: almendra: Arabic root of Spanish word
    ... and we were told 'almendra' is the Spanish for 'almond'. ... be obviously a word of Arabic origin, as are many Spanish words. ... and "alma" aren't. ...
    (sci.lang)