Customer Reviews

Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach

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Etymology, the study of the historical derivation of words from their sources in older or in other languages, is the most important of sciences for the true student of language. In English there are Calvert Watkins' Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Reverend Skeats' Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, and Shipley's discursive Origins of English Words. For the classical languages there is Buck's Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin.

And now there is Brodsky's Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach.

No, his work is not encyclopedic. There are many words such as 'milagro' or 'sapo' or 'pendejo' with which intermediate speakers of Spanish will be familiar for which he provides no etymology. But Brodsky's intention is to widen your Spanish vocabulary as a whole within two contexts, the classical roots of the language, and your knowledge of cognate words that already exist in English. To that end he does address over 5,000 Spanish words, giving for most their corresponding roots in Latin (or Greek, Germanic, Arabic, etc.) and their counterparts in English where they exist. Brodsky's goal is to help broaden your vocabulary not by arbitrary memorization but through making clear the association of new words with words you already know. What results is a painless, educational, and often quite diverting introduction to the etymology of both English and Spanish and a history of the development of Western thought in the last two millennia to boot. Would you, for example, guess that the common Spanish word 'lástima' has the same unlikely root as the English word 'blame,' both being vulgar (i.e., common and unlearned) developments from the Greek 'blasphemia'?

This book is a wonderful accomplishment. It presents an amazing amount of data in an attractive and approachable format. It should not intimidate anyone with an intermediate knowledge of Spanish. Neither will it disappoint the advanced student as a reference. Greek and Arabic forms are treated matter-of-factly in a Latin alphabet transcription. And while no knowledge of the classical languages will be necessary, serious students of Greek and Latin will not feel condescended to. And this is not a dry work. There are plenty of asides such as a short essay on the common origins of the English word 'bigot' and the Spanish word for moustache which add to the text immensely. The author obviously loves his subject.

This is an ideal book. It has no flaws. I cannot imagine why any reviewer would give it less than five stars. If you are a serious student of Spanish, or just an English speaker with a familiarity with Spanish who wants to know his own tongue better, this is the book for you.

I've been trying to write this book for the last eight months. David Brodsky beat me to it-and he's a lot smarter than me.Studying Spanish is full of deja vu moments,for example: " Isn't the Spanish word ABOGADO(lawyer) a lot like English ADVOCATE?" Or: "COTIDIANO(daily), in Spanish, kinda feels like English QUOTIDIAN. HIPOTECA(mortgage) is a thinly-disguised version of English HYPOTHECATE("to pledge without delivery of title or possession"-Webster's).MIEL(honey),in Spanish, reminds me of the English word MELLIFLUOUS(honey-voiced).Spanish is called a ROMANCE Language because it derives from the Latin of The ROMANS, who invaded Spain circa(cerca in Spanish) 218 B.C. What is not emphasized perhaps,is that English, and of course Spanish, are filled with Latin/Greek words that could make the study of Spanish words much easier.A little ETYMOLOGY(word history) is in order-if you wish to learn Spanish more quickly and less painfully.All this is tiresome to a linguist-who has studied The Great Vowel Shift in English, and all the other "transmogrifications" of European languages. All this is tedious to the high-school freshman studying Spanish,with its relatively tame oddness(compared to Russian,Japanese,Chinese).And yet, in the 1950 textbook "Latin for Americans"(Ullman and Henry), etymology is strongly practiced.It is almost the principal purpose of the book,along with reinforcing English grammar, and priming law and medical studies in college.I would recommend this book to many Spanish teachers,and intermediate Spanish students.Spanish just feels so beautiful to me.This book is a treasury of European history and culture, if in a small way.