"to smile" in seven languages
Meaningto smile
Spanish
sonreír
/sonreˈiɾ/
inherited
Conjugated like reír: sonrío, sonríes.
French
sourire
/suʁiʁ/
inherited
Also the noun: un sourire.
Italian
sorridere
/sorˈridere/
inherited
Portuguese
sorrir
/soˈhih/
inherited
Romanian
zâmbi
/zɨmˈbi/
other source · of Slavic origin
Catalan
somriure
/sumˈriwɾə/
inherited
English
smile
/smaɪl/
native English · Middle English smilen, probably Scandinavian
English → Italianto smilesorridereNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: ridicule, ridiculous, risible.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
SUBRĪDĒRE‘to smile ('to laugh under')’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
A smile is a 'laugh from below' (SUB + RĪDĒRE). The b assimilated to r in sorridere and sourire, and Spanish reshaped the prefix as son-. Romanian smiles in Slavic: zâmbi.
English relatives: ridicule, ridiculous, risible
Learn it
In a sentence
- esSiempre sonríe.
- frElle sourit toujours.
- itSorride sempre.
- ptEla sempre sorri.
- roZâmbește mereu.
- caSempre somriu.
- enShe always smiles.