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"to visit" in seven languages

Meaningto visit

Spanish

visitar

/bisiˈtaɾ/

learned

French

visiter

/vizite/

learned

For places; to visit a person is rendre visite à.

Italian

visitare

/viziˈtare/

learned

For people, andare a trovare is more usual.

Portuguese

visitar

/viziˈtah/

learned

Romanian

vizita

/viziˈta/

borrowed · French visiter

Catalan

visitar

/biziˈta/

learned

English

visit

/ˈvɪzɪt/

from Latin/French · Old French visiter, from Latin VĪSITĀRE

English → Italianto visitvisitareCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

VĪSITĀRE‘to go to see often (from VIDĒRE 'to see')’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

VĪSITĀRE is 'to keep going to see'. All four use the learned form, but French and Italian visit places and 'go and find' people.

English relatives: visitor, vision, video, visa

Learn it

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In a sentence

  • esVisitamos Roma el año pasado.
  • frNous avons visité Rome l'année dernière.
  • itAbbiamo visitato Roma l'anno scorso.
  • ptVisitamos Roma no ano passado.
  • roAm vizitat Roma anul trecut.
  • caVam visitar Roma l'any passat.
  • enWe visited Rome last year.

The Latin family

VID-, VĪS-· see

VIDĒRE lost its middle in Spanish (Old Spanish veer → ver) and French (voir) but kept it in Italian vedere. The sisters built new spoken participles — *VĪSTA behind vista, *VIDŪTA behind French vue — while classical VĪSUM fed the learned words. Catalan veure turned the d into u; Romanian vedea kept it, like Italian.

  • VIDĒREto see

    esverfrvoiritvedereptverrovedeacaveure

  • *VĪSTAMsight (spoken-Latin participle)

    esvistafrvueitvistaptvistacavistaenvista

  • VĪSIŌNEMsight, vision

    esvisiónfrvisionitvisioneptvisãoroviziunecavisióenvision

  • VĪSITĀREto go to see

    esvisitarfrvisiteritvisitareptvisitarrovizitacavisitarenvisit

  • PROVIDĒREto foresee, provide for

    esproveerfrpourvoiritprovvedereptprovercaproveirenprovide

  • ĒVIDENTEMplain to see

    esevidentefrévidentitevidenteptevidenteroevidentcaevidentenevident

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More words from the same Latin

More in Core verbs

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