4 ms·

My favourite in Spanish (but I think English speakers can relate) is "botica" (pharmacy) and "bodega" (cellar), both from Greek apotheke (basement, literally "u

by narag 5y ago

My favourite in Spanish (but I think English speakers can relate) is "botica" (pharmacy) and "bodega" (cellar), both from Greek apotheke (basement, literally "under-box")

schoen 5y ago
Or "boutique" (in English via French). The perceived level of fanciness in shopping at a boutique as opposed to a bodega is rather different!
- narag 5y ago
  Or imagine asking the pharmacist for wine :) In Spanish "bodega" is specifically where wine is made or kept. I'm aware that in English it's used for convenience stores. Just a different joke.
reactspa 5y ago
In Hindi, the word "booti" means medicinal plant (seems similar to "botica" here).
d_tr 5y ago
> apotheke (basement, literally "under-box") Actually, "apo" has the meaning of "away" here, so "away-box" would be more accurate. Maybe you are confusing it with "ypo", which actually means "under" in Greek? I always enjoy reading about this stuff, btw!
- narag 5y ago
  Oops! that's right... "under-box" would be "hipoteca" = mortgage. Anything with the "teca" (or "theque" in other languages) has some relation, like modern discoteca or biblioteca = library.
asveikau 5y ago
Spanish has tons of double imports from Latin. Words that follow the normal phonetic evolution going from Latin to Spanish, then parallel words re-imported from latin later. Some I can think of offhand are the ones with the consonant + l -> ll change: Plano + llano Clave + llave Pleno + lleno I think there are some others where Latin vowels like /o/ or /e/ change to diphthongs like /we/ or /je/ and they get re-imported with /o/ or /e/ again. I can't think of examples of this right now but I am sure they exist. [Edit: foco + fuego is one such example] Probably others with word initial /f/ put to silent h, then re-imported with an f again. Wiktionary has a long list of these here: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Spanish_doublets https://en.m.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Spani...
StavrosK 5y ago
German speakers can also relate, with "apotheke". Interestingly, apotheke in modern Greek means "storage room", pharmacy is "pharmakeio". Ypotheke does mean mortgage in modern Greek too.
- narag 5y ago
  In ancient Greek too. They invented the thing. The Romans had a similar legal contract, but adopted the term to avoid confusion with other lending practices. As dt_r pointed, apotheke always meant "away room" so it makes sense to think that it got the new meaning because of context: it surely was imported alongside other Greek terms about drugs.
  - StavrosK 5y ago
    Sure, but I don't speak much ancient Greek and I didn't want to make too many assumptions about what carried over versus what changed.
stevula 5y ago
Probably obvious, but apothecary also comes from apotheke, so it’s related to bodega.

by narag 5y ago

My favourite in Spanish (but I think English speakers can relate) is "botica" (pharmacy) and "bodega" (cellar), both from Greek apotheke (basement, literally "under-box")

schoen 5y ago

Or "boutique" (in English via French). The perceived level of fanciness in shopping at a boutique as opposed to a bodega is rather different!

narag 5y ago
Or imagine asking the pharmacist for wine :) In Spanish "bodega" is specifically where wine is made or kept. I'm aware that in English it's used for convenience stores. Just a different joke.

reactspa 5y ago

In Hindi, the word "booti" means medicinal plant (seems similar to "botica" here).

d_tr 5y ago

> apotheke (basement, literally "under-box") Actually, "apo" has the meaning of "away" here, so "away-box" would be more accurate. Maybe you are confusing it with "ypo", which actually means "under" in Greek? I always enjoy reading about this stuff, btw!

narag 5y ago
Oops! that's right... "under-box" would be "hipoteca" = mortgage. Anything with the "teca" (or "theque" in other languages) has some relation, like modern discoteca or biblioteca = library.

asveikau 5y ago

Spanish has tons of double imports from Latin. Words that follow the normal phonetic evolution going from Latin to Spanish, then parallel words re-imported from latin later. Some I can think of offhand are the ones with the consonant + l -> ll change: Plano + llano Clave + llave Pleno + lleno I think there are some others where Latin vowels like /o/ or /e/ change to diphthongs like /we/ or /je/ and they get re-imported with /o/ or /e/ again. I can't think of examples of this right now but I am sure they exist. [Edit: foco + fuego is one such example] Probably others with word initial /f/ put to silent h, then re-imported with an f again. Wiktionary has a long list of these here: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Spanish_doublets https://en.m.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Spani...

StavrosK 5y ago

German speakers can also relate, with "apotheke". Interestingly, apotheke in modern Greek means "storage room", pharmacy is "pharmakeio". Ypotheke does mean mortgage in modern Greek too.

narag 5y ago
In ancient Greek too. They invented the thing. The Romans had a similar legal contract, but adopted the term to avoid confusion with other lending practices. As dt_r pointed, apotheke always meant "away room" so it makes sense to think that it got the new meaning because of context: it surely was imported alongside other Greek terms about drugs.
- StavrosK 5y ago
  Sure, but I don't speak much ancient Greek and I didn't want to make too many assumptions about what carried over versus what changed.

stevula 5y ago

Probably obvious, but apothecary also comes from apotheke, so it’s related to bodega.