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"interest" in seven languages

Meaninginterest

Spanish

interés

/inteˈɾes/

masc.learned

French

intérêt

/ɛ̃teʁɛ/

masc.learned

From Latin INTEREST 'it matters'; the circumflex marks the lost s.

Italian

interesse

/inteˈrɛsse/

masc.learned

Portuguese

interesse

/ĩteˈɾesi/

masc.learned

Romanian

interes

/inteˈres/

neut.learned

Catalan

interès

/intəˈɾɛs/

masc.learned

English

interest

/ˈɪntɹəst/

from Latin/French · Anglo-French interesse, Medieval Latin INTERESSE (reshaped after Latin INTEREST)

English → ItalianinterestinteresseCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

INTERESSE (INTEREST 'it matters')‘to be between; to make a difference’

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

The story

Medieval lawyers took the Latin verb 'it makes a difference' and made it a noun for what you stand to gain or lose. That is how it came to mean both curiosity and the interest a bank pays, in all four languages.

English relatives: interesting, interested, disinterested

Sound laws at work

French loses S before a consonant (^)

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In a sentence

  • esMuestra mucho interés por la historia.
  • frIl montre beaucoup d'intérêt pour l'histoire.
  • itMostra molto interesse per la storia.
  • ptEle demonstra muito interesse por história.
  • roArată mult interes pentru istorie.
  • caMostra molt d'interès per la història.
  • enHe shows great interest in history.

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