"chair" in seven languages
Meaningchair
Spanish
/ˈsiʝa/
fem.other source · Latin SELLAM 'seat, saddle'
French
/ʃɛz/
fem.inherited
A Parisian variant of chaire (now 'pulpit, professorial chair'), with r pronounced as z.
Italian
/ˈsɛdja/
fem.other source · derived from sedere 'to sit' (Latin SEDĒRE)
Portuguese
/kaˈdejɾɐ/
fem.inherited
Romanian
/ˈskaun/
neut.other source · Latin SCAMNUM 'bench, stool' (inherited)
Catalan
/kəˈdiɾə/
fem.inherited
English
/tʃɛɹ/
from Latin/French · Old French chaiere
The Latin ancestor
CATHEDRAM‘armchair (from Greek kathédra)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Three unrelated words: French sits on a Greek throne (a cathedral is the church with the bishop's chair), Spanish on a Latin saddle, Italian on 'a sitting'.
English relatives: chair (from Old French chaiere), cathedral
Learn it
In a sentence
- esCoge una silla.
- frPrends une chaise.
- itPrendi una sedia.
- ptPega uma cadeira.
- roIa-ți un scaun.
- caAgafa una cadira.
- enTake a chair.