Tomato – From the Spanish tomate, itself from the Nahuatl tomatl. Tobacco – From the Spanish tobaco, itself from the Taino (native Caribbean) language in the New World. Suave – From the Spanish word for ‘soft’, and meaning in English ‘charming’ or ‘confident’ of a man. Stevedore – From the Spanish estibador, meaning ‘one who loads cargo’. Sherry – A fortified wine typically from the Spanish city of Jérez. Savvy – West Indies slang from the Spanish sabe usted? (‘do you know?’) and later meaning ‘smart’. Rodeo – From the Spanish verb rodear or ‘to go round’ and picked up by cowboys in the New World. Renegade – From the Spanish renegado, originally meaning a Christian who converted to Islam, and later meaning a rebel or turncoat. Quixotic – Meaning ‘absurdly romantic’ or ‘striving for an unattainable ideal’ after the half-mad Don Quijote. Mustang is one of the many American English words picked up in the New World, from the Spanish mesteño and coming to mean any wild horse. Potato – From the Spanish patata, itself from the Carib of Haiti’s batata. Patio – From the Spanish, meaning ‘an inner court open to the sky’. Mustang – From the Spanish mesteño, meaning a found horse of unknown ownership, and later to mean ‘wild horse’. Mosquito – From the Spanish word mosca – which means ‘fly’ – and meaning ‘little fly’. Marmalade – From the Galician-Portuguese marmelada, itself from marmelo or ‘quince’. Macho – From the Spanish, meaning masculine. Lasso – A cowboy termed picked up in the New World, from the Spanish lazo or ‘knot’. Guerilla – From the Spanish word guerra, or ‘war’, and meaning ‘little war’ and then ‘independent fighter’. Source: WikiMediaĬonquistador – From the Spanish meaning ‘one who conquers’ and in particular colonial explorers.Įmbargo – From the Spanish verb embargar, of the same meaning in English.įlotilla – Another war-related term from the Spanish meaning ‘a little fleet of ships’ and from the Spanish verb flotar, or ‘to float’. Columbus thought they meant they were Asian people of ‘Khan’ while the word later become corrupted to mean ‘savage’.Ĭargo – From the Spanish verb cargar, meaning to load.Ĭigar – From the Spanish cigarro, from which also comes ‘cigarette’ or cigarillo in Spanish.Ĭhilli – Another Nahuatl word in Spanish usually rendered as chile.Įnglish has borrowed most of the Spanish words for crops found in the New World by Spanish conquistadors, such as maize, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, tobacco and chocolate. Ĭannibal – From Christopher Columbus’ expeditions where native Carib people called themselves Caniba.
36 English words you didn’t know were stolen from SpanishĪficionado – From the Spanish meaning connoisseur or fan of a subject.Īlligator – From the Spanish el lagarto or ‘the lizard’, which English-speaking settlers picked up from earlier Spanish explorers in Florida.Īnchovy – From the Spanish anchoa, itself probably from the Basque anchuva meaning ‘dry’.Īrmadillo – From the Spanish meaning ‘little armoured one’.Īvocado – One of many Nahuatl (Aztecan) words picked up by Spanish colonial explorers, or aguacate in Spanish.īarbeque – From the Spanish barbacoa, itself from the Arawak (native Caribbean). The English word ‘alligator’ is a corruption of the Spanish ‘el lagarto’ meaning ‘the lizard’.