You know, having a surprisingly good grounding in Latin and etymology would be more useful

[conuly]

if it was useful.

If you tell me that "herramientas" is Spanish for "tools" then I will automatically say "Ah, yes, because ferrum is Latin for iron, as in ferrous, and many Latin words beginning with F become Spanish words beginning with H, as in horno which clearly is related to our English word furnace." I did that literally two minutes ago. Your eyes are not rolling as hard reading that as mine did once I'd finished thinking it, believe me.

But what I cannot do is look at the word "herramientas" without a translation and then derive that on my own.

(I have that same issue in English, but let's be honest here - I rarely come across totally unfamiliar English words in the wild, and when I do then it's usually clear from context. I'm still a little irked about the time I was reading about the blood-brain barrier and came across the word "astrocyte" and had to look it up because all I could get from that is "something star shaped in the brain". I can't quite remember what those things do. But I know they're star shaped! In the brain!)

Comments

[redbird]

With astrocyte, I got as far as "star-shaped cell," but that didn't tell me what they do or why they're important. Adding the context of "in the brain" says "part of the nervous system," but I'd stil have to look it up (again) to know what they do or why they matter.

I am now wondering why it's "herramientas" but a hardware store is a ferreteria, a fact that I got from reading signs and have never actually needed to know.

[movingfinger]

ironmongery

[conuly]

Several rabbit holes later, I don’t know either of those things either.

[conuly]

Well, yes, but it’s not a word in my active vocabulary.

[cactuswatcher]

Some people just think a bit differently. I think I'm a little better than average at foreign languages because I'm a little dyslexic. From starting reading English, guessing what thing or idea should come next was easier than puzzling out the letters in the word in text or looking it up in the dictionary. Of course, I made thousands of mistakes over time, but in reading on most of them got corrected without anyone else knowing. It was a great skill to have once I got into foreign languages. I won't kid you though, I've worn out several dictionaries in English as well as Russian!

I don't remember seeing the word "herramientos" before. But no, it's not a word I'd look up. "herra-" jumps out as iron, and I know "-mientos" as something like "thingies." This is more a matter of lots of experience with languages (including Spanish), than any particular talent of mine. Any foreign language helps with all the rest, because of the ways they all help you see things slightly differently.

Learning Latin is seriously hard work, I had a roommate in grad school in Classics who told me that ancient Greek was fun and not insanely hard, but that Latin always seemed to get more and more complicated the more deeply he got into it.

[moon_custafer]

My attempts of the past four years to learn German have left me unable to understand, still less speak, the language; but I can now recognize the (probable) origins of a great many American slang terms.

[chanter1944]

My brain circles back, herramientas to hierro, iron. Makes sense, when thinking of worked metal farm tools hanging from pegs on the barn wall until needed.

[deird1]

I love the way your brain works. I’m having an etymology nerdgasm over here.