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"harm, damage" in seven languages

Meaningharm, damage

Spanish

daño

/ˈdaɲo/

masc.inherited

Hacer daño is also 'to hurt': me haces daño.

French

mal

/mal/

masc.other source · Latin MALUM 'evil, bad thing'

Faire du mal à quelqu'un; c'est dommage means 'what a pity'.

Italian

danno

/ˈdanno/

masc.inherited

Fare male is the usual 'to hurt'.

Portuguese

dano

/ˈdɐ̃nu/

masc.inherited

In everyday speech Portuguese also says fazer mal 'to do harm'.

Romanian

rău

/rəw/

neut.other source · Latin REUM 'accused, guilty'

Catalan

dany

/daɲ/

masc.inherited

Latin -MN- became ny, as in Spanish daño.

English

harm

/hɑɹm/

native English · Old English hearm

English → Italianharm, damagedannoNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: damage, damn, condemn, indemnity.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

DAMNUM‘loss, damage’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Latin MN went two ways: Spanish fused it into ñ (daño), Italian assimilated it to nn (danno). English damage comes from the same word through French.

English relatives: damage, damn, condemn, indemnity

Sound laws at work

Italian assimilates clusters

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In a sentence

  • esFumar hace mucho daño a la salud.
  • frLe tabac fait beaucoup de mal à la santé.
  • itIl fumo fa molti danni alla salute.
  • ptFumar causa sérios danos à saúde.
  • roFumatul face mult rău sănătății.
  • caFumar provoca greus danys a la salut.
  • enSmoking does a lot of harm to your health.

More words from the same Latin

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