"kidney" in seven languages
Meaningkidney
Spanish
/riˈɲon/
masc.inherited
From spoken *RĒNIŌNEM, an enlarged form of RĒNEM.
French
/ʁɛ̃/
masc.inherited
Les reins is also the small of the back; kidneys as food are rognons (from *RĒNIŌNEM).
Italian
/ˈrɛne/
masc.learned
Kidneys as food are rognoni, from French.
Portuguese
/hĩ/
masc.inherited
plural: rins
Romanian
/riˈnikʲ/
masc.inherited
plural: rinichi
From a diminutive in -CULUS (DEX: *RENUNCULUS).
Catalan
/ruˈɲo/
masc.inherited
plural: ronyons
From *RĒNIŌNEM, like Spanish riñón; the n returns in the plural.
English
/ˈkɪdni/
native English · Middle English kidenei (origin uncertain)
The Latin ancestor
RĒNEM‘kidney (mostly plural RĒNĒS)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
French rein and Portuguese rim kept the short Latin word; Spanish riñón and Catalan ronyó grew from *RĒNIŌNEM (NI → ñ, ny), and Romanian rinichi from a diminutive in -CULUS. Adrenaline comes from the glands 'at the kidneys' (AD RĒNĒS).
English relatives: renal, adrenaline
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esLe donó un riñón a su hermano.
- frIl a donné un rein à son frère.
- itHa donato un rene a suo fratello.
- ptEle doou um rim para o irmão.
- roI-a donat un rinichi fratelui său.
- caVa donar un ronyó al seu germà.
- enHe donated a kidney to his brother.