WHAT ARE COGNATES?

A cognate is a word that is related in origin to another word, such as the English word brother and the German word bruder or the English word history and the Spanish word historia. The words were derived from the same source; thus, they are cognates (like cousins tracing their ancestry). Because they come from the same origin, cognates have similar meanings and often similar spellings in two different languages.

"Cognates are often derived from Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian) that have their origins in Latin, although some are derived from other language families (e.g., Germanic)," noted Patricia F. Vadasy and J. Ron Nelson in their book "Vocabulary Instruction for Struggling Students" (Guilford Press, 2012).

EXAMPLES:

night: nui (French), noche (Spanish), Nacht (German), nacht (Dutch), natt (Swedish, Norwegian); root: Indo-European, nókʷt
constipated: constipado (Spanish); root (stem): Latin cōnstipāt-
nourish: nutrir (Spanish), noris (Old French); root: nutritivus (Medieval Latin)
atheist: ateo/a (Spanish), athéiste (French), atheos (Latin); root: átheos (Greek)
controversy: controversia (Spanish); root: controversus (Latin)
comic (meaning comedian): cómico (Spanish); root: cōmĭcus (Latin)
abortion: aborto (Spanish); root: abŏrtus (Latin)
government: gobierno (Spanish), governement (Old French), gubernus (Late Latin); root: gŭbĕrnāre (Latin, loaned from Greek)

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