"notebook, exercise book" in seven languages
Meaningnotebook, exercise book
Spanish
cuaderno
/kwaˈdeɾno/
masc.inherited
French
cahier
/kaje/
masc.inherited
Italian
quaderno
/kwaˈdɛrno/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
caderno
/kaˈdɛhnu/
masc.inherited
Romanian
caiet
/kaˈjet/
neut.borrowed · French cahier
Catalan
quadern
/kwəˈdɛrn/
masc.inherited
English
notebook
/ˈnoʊtbʊk/
other source · note (Old French) + book (Old English)
English → Italiannotebook, exercise bookquadernoNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: quire, quaternary, quarter.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
QUATERNŌS‘four at a time (a gathering of four folded sheets)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
A notebook was a quire of four sheets. French cahier is the same word worn almost to nothing: quaterno → quaer → cahier, with the t gone entirely and Spanish/Italian softening it to d.
English relatives: quire, quaternary, quarter
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esAbrid los cuadernos.
- frOuvrez vos cahiers.
- itAprite i quaderni.
- ptAbram os cadernos.
- roDeschideți caietele.
- caObriu els quaderns.
- enOpen your notebooks.