"same" in seven languages
Meaningsame
Spanish
/ˈmismo/
inherited
fem.: misma
Old Spanish meismo, mesmo. After a pronoun it means 'self': yo mismo 'I myself'.
French
/mɛm/
inherited
Old French medesme; the circumflex marks the lost s. Before the noun 'same', after it 'very, self': le jour même.
Italian
/ˈstesso/
other source · Latin ISTUM IPSUM 'this very'
fem.: stessa
Medesimo, the true cousin of mismo and même, is formal.
Portuguese
/ˈmesmu/
inherited
fem.: mesma
Romanian
/aˈtʃelaʃʲ/
other source · acel 'that' (Latin ECCE ILLUM) + a reinforcing -și
fem.: aceeași
Catalan
/məˈteʃ/
inherited
fem.: mateixa
From *METIPSUM, without the superlative ending of mismo and même.
English
/seɪm/
other source · Old Norse samr
The Latin ancestor
*METIPSIMUM‘very self (from EGOMET IPSISSIMUS 'I my very self')’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Latin reinforced 'self' twice: EGO-MET IPSISSIMUS, 'I-myself the very-most self'. Spoken Latin peeled off the -met- and the superlative into one word, the ancestor of mismo and même; Italian says 'this very' (stesso) instead.
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esNacimos el mismo día.
- frNous sommes nés le même jour.
- itSiamo nati lo stesso giorno.
- ptNascemos no mesmo dia.
- roNe-am născut în aceeași zi.
- caVam néixer el mateix dia.
- enWe were born on the same day.