THE ETYMOLOGY NERD
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity

OF SPACE

1/10/2019

1 Comment

 
Somebody just requested the word despacito, so why not? It seems to have entered the American vernacular at this point. In Spanish, the word means "slowly", and the song is named that because the singer wants to savor his relationship slowly. The -ito, though, is sort of a diminutive, and the real word for "slowly" is despacio. Now we can eliminate the prefix de-, which meant "of" or "from" and comes from the same Latin root that gives us the de- in defrost, defuse, debilitate, et cetera. The root is espacio, which meant "space", in this case referring to a period of time. So, "of a period of time", something is going slowly. Espacio is from Latin spatium, which is the etymon of the English word space​ and very similar in application. That in turn traces to a Proto-Indo-European reconstruction, speh, which meant "to pull" (as in you're creating a space by pulling something apart). Observing Google Trends for the keyword despacito is, like finding the etymology, quite entertaining: there's a giant spike in June 2017 and has recently stabilized, decreasing more slowly... or should I say more despacito?
1 Comment
Salil khanna
1/13/2019 09:21:40 pm

Thank you etymology nerd, very very cool

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    AUTHOR

    Picture
    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic. You're looking at a super outdated page

    Archives

    December 2023
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    TAGS

    All
    Interview
    Satire

Picture
CONTACT: [email protected]
SUBSTACK • TIKTOK • INSTAGRAM • YOUTUBE
I do not have a facebook account that's an impostor
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity