42 ms·
In a similar vein, vanilla is from Spanish diminutive of vaina (sheath), which is from Latin vagina (sheath).
by yongjik 5y ago
In a similar vein, vanilla is from Spanish diminutive of vaina (sheath), which is from Latin vagina (sheath).
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> vanilla is from Spanish diminutive I've been wondering about this! Does Spanish regularly form diminutives other than with the -it- infix? ("m'hijito" etc.) Latin forms them with -ill-, -cul-, or -ul-, and many such forms are obvious in Spanish (tomatillo / quesadilla etc.), but I've never known whether -ill- is still productive today or if those are relics from the past.
- ptato 5y agoYes, at least in Spain. The spanish wikipedia lists a bunch of the variants [0]. I personally use -ino/a, as it is common where I grew up, but my favorite way of saying "puppy" is "perrete". [0] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminutivo https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminutivo
- thaumasiotes 5y agoThanks for the link! It's fun to see a Spanish region bordering Portugal (-inho) forming diminutives with -iño and one bordering France (-ette) forming them with -ete.