"moon" in seven languages
Meaningmoon
Spanish
luna
/ˈluna/
fem.inherited
French
lune
/lyn/
fem.inherited
Italian
luna
/ˈluna/
fem.inherited
Portuguese
lua
/ˈluɐ/
fem.inherited
Portuguese lost the intervocalic -n-: LŪNAM → lua.
Romanian
lună
/ˈlunə/
fem.inherited
Catalan
lluna
/ˈʎunə/
fem.inherited
English
moon
/mun/
native English · Old English mōna
Moon is kindred not to LŪNA but to MĒNSIS 'month' (PIE *mḗh₁n̥s).
English → ItalianmoonlunaNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: lunar, lunatic.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
LŪNAM‘moon’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
A perfect cognate set: the only change is French, which fronted the long Ū to [y] and muted the final a.
English relatives: lunar, lunatic
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esEsta noche hay luna llena.
- frCe soir, c'est la pleine lune.
- itStasera c'è la luna piena.
- ptHoje à noite tem lua cheia.
- roLa noapte e lună plină.
- caAquesta nit hi ha lluna plena.
- enTonight there is a full moon.