"tear (from crying)" in seven languages
Meaningtear (from crying)
Spanish
lágrima
/ˈlaɡɾima/
fem.inherited
French
larme
/laʁm/
fem.inherited
Italian
lacrima
/ˈlakrima/
fem.learned
A Latinism; the inherited form lagrima lives on in poetry and some regions.
Portuguese
lágrima
/ˈlaɡɾimɐ/
fem.inherited
Romanian
lacrimă
/ˈlakrimə/
fem.inherited
Catalan
llàgrima
/ˈʎaɡɾimə/
fem.inherited
Catalan palatalizes initial L-: LACRIMAM → llàgrima, LUNAM → lluna.
English
tear
/tɪɹ/
Indo-European kin · PIE *dakru-
Old Latin had dacruma; English tear and Greek dákru are its cousins.
English → Italiantear (from crying)lacrimaDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: lachrymose.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
LACRIMAM‘tear’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Spanish voiced the c to g (lágrima) and French squeezed the word to one syllable (larme). Latin LACRIMA itself comes from older dacruma, the same Indo-European word as English tear.
English relatives: lachrymose
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esTenía lágrimas en los ojos.
- frElle avait les larmes aux yeux.
- itAveva le lacrime agli occhi.
- ptEla estava com lágrimas nos olhos.
- roAvea lacrimi în ochi.
- caTenia llàgrimes als ulls.
- enShe had tears in her eyes.