"danger" in seven languages
Meaningdanger
Spanish
/peˈligɾo/
masc.learned
Semi-learned (Old Spanish periglo): a fully popular outcome would have had j, as OCULUM → ojo.
French
/dɑ̃ʒe/
masc.other source · Old French dangier 'power to harm', from Vulgar Latin *DOMINIĀRIUM (DOMINUS 'lord')
Péril, from PERĪCULUM, also exists but is more literary.
Italian
/peˈrikolo/
masc.learned
Portuguese
/peˈɾigu/
masc.learned
Semi-learned: a fully popular outcome of -CUL- would have had lh, as OCULUM → olho.
Romanian
/peˈrikol/
neut.borrowed · Italian pericolo
Catalan
/pəˈɾiʎ/
masc.inherited
Fully inherited: -CUL- became ll, as OCULUM → ull.
English
/ˈdeɪndʒɚ/
other source · Old French dangier (Latin *DOMINIĀRIUM 'power, dominion')
The Latin ancestor
PERĪCULUM‘trial, risk’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
French danger was first a lord's 'dominion' — being in someone's danger meant being in their power. Spanish peligro swapped the r and l of older periglo.
English relatives: peril, perilous; experience, expert (same root)
Learn it
In a sentence
- es¡Peligro de muerte!
- frDanger de mort !
- itPericolo di morte!
- ptPerigo de morte!
- roPericol de moarte!
- caPerill de mort!
- enDanger of death!