"breast" in seven languages
Meaningbreast
Spanish
seno
/ˈseno/
masc.inherited
Everyday Spanish often says pecho; doctors say mama.
French
sein
/sɛ̃/
masc.inherited
Italian
seno
/ˈseno/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
seio
/ˈseju/
masc.inherited
Portuguese lost intervocalic -n-: SINUM → seio.
Romanian
sân
/sɨn/
masc.inherited
Catalan
pit
/pit/
masc.other source · Latin PECTUS 'chest'
Pit covers both 'chest' and 'breast'; si is literary.
English
breast
/bɹɛst/
native English · Old English brēost
English → ItalianbreastsenoNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: sinus, sine, insinuate.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
SINUM‘a curve, fold (of the toga); bosom’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
SINUS was the curving fold of a garment across the chest, then the bosom it covered. The same word gave the sinus in your skull and the sine in trigonometry.
English relatives: sinus, sine, insinuate
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esSintió un dolor en el seno izquierdo.
- frElle a ressenti une douleur au sein gauche.
- itHa sentito un dolore al seno sinistro.
- ptEla sentiu uma dor no seio esquerdo.
- roA simțit o durere în sânul stâng.
- caVa sentir un dolor al pit esquerre.
- enShe felt a pain in her left breast.