Commonly Used Spanish Words in Modern English

Both English and Spanish are Indo-European languages. English is descended from the Germanic family of languages while Spanish is a Romance (aka Romanic) language. The Romance family of languages includes Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. All these languages emerged from the interaction of Vulgar (= vernacular) Latin with the local idioms. The Renaissance triggered the influx of Spanish vocabulary into the English language, either directly or through French. By 1650, Spanish was one of the two languages with international potential. (In case you are curious, Dutch was the other language.)

Many words that came to English via Spanish are ultimately derived from South or Central American Indian languages: for example, the so very "English" word potato derives from Haitian through Spanish. The French language was a leading contributor of new words, especially as a "relay" language, i.e. as a linguistic middleman that channeled fresh vocabulary from other languages. The word canoe is a case in point: it is of Latin, French, Spanish, and ultimately Haitian etymology. In other cases, Spanish played the part of the "relay" language: for example, the word cork, ultimately of Latin origin (through Arabic), came to English via Old Spanish (alcorque).

Spanish loanwords may not be as numerous as those of Latin and French origin, but they are just as varied, widespread, and influential. English would be poorer without words such as adobe, alcove, alligator, avocado, banana, bravo, cafeteria, canary, canyon, chocolate, cockroach, cocoa, embargo, guitar, hammock, hurricane, maize, mosquito, plaza, renegade, rodeo, sherry, spaniel, stockade, tobacco, tomato, tuna, vanilla, wrangler-- to mention but a few examples.

The following list is a sampler of (more or less) commonly used Spanish words and phrases in modern English.

aficionado (from the Spanish verb aficionarse (a algo) = to grow fond of something): a keen admirer, a knowledgeable devotee, an enthusiast, a fan

caudillo (from Latin capitellum = small head): leader, head, chief; a military dictator