Spanish Words of Galician Origin

Quick Answer

In this article, we’ll discuss Spanish words of Galician origin, such as morriña(homesickness) and vieira(scallop).

Questions This Article Answers

Is gallego related to Portuguese?

Which Spanish words come from Galician?

Are there Galician loanwords in Spanish?

Is vieira a Galician or Spanish word?

Coruña Galicia

Galician Influence on Spanish

Gallego(Galician) is a language spoken mainly in Galicia(Galicia) located in northwestern España(Spain). Galician is closely related to portugués, as they are both lenguas romances(Romance languages) that evolved from latín vulgar(Vulgar Latin) into a common ancestor called galaicoportugués(Galician-Portuguese).

Given Galicia's location on the northwest coast of España(Spain), many of the words which found their way into Spanish are related to pesca(fishing) and the weather.

Adaptations, Calques, and Loanwords

A linguistic adaptación(adaptation) is a word or phrase taken from another language but adapted to the target language for phonologic, lexical, or syntactic reasons. For example, breeze is an adaptation of the Spanish word brisa.

A calco(calque) is a word or phrase translated literally into another language. For example, roadrunner is a calque of the Spanish word correcaminos (correr: to run + caminos: roads).

A préstamo lingüístico(loanword) is a word or phrase taken from another language and used in its original form. For example, patio is a loanword taken from Spanish.

Spanish Words of Galician Origin

The following words are galleguismos(words of Galician origin adapted to Spanish).

Galician	Spanish	English
aindamáis	además	also
barulho	barullo	racket
Botafumeiro	botafumeiro	censer
caravela	carabela	caravel
chamiça	chamiza	brushwood
chuvasco	chubasco	heavy shower
morrinha	morriña	homesickness
muiñeira	muñeira	muñeira
orballo	orvallo	drizzle
sarpullo	sarpullido	rash
xeito	jeito	fishing net

Look at the following examples:

examples
El chubasco obligó a las carabelas a regresar al puerto. The heavy shower forced the caravels to return to port.
Escribió una canción sobre la morriña durante la gira. She wrote a song about homesickness during her tour.
Jaime está remendando el jeito. Jaime is mending the fishing net.

Fishing boat sea

Galician Loanwords in Spanish

The following list shows Galician préstamos lingüísticos(loanwords) used in Spanish.

Spanish	English
albariño	albariño (Galician wine)
cachear	to frisk
chaira	honing steel
choza	hut
costa	coast
filloa	filloa (Galician fritter)
grelo	turnip leaf
meiga	witch
pedregullo	gravel
percebe	barnacle
queimada	queimada (Galician drink)
solla	plaice
vieira	scallop
zamburiña	variegated scallop

examples
Probamos vieiras y zamburiñas. We tried scallops and variegated scallops.
Afilé el cuchillo con una chaira. I sharpened the knife with a honing steel.
Los aldeanos creían que esa mujer era una meiga. The villagers believed that woman was a witch.

Scallop shell

Did you know that the vieira(scallop) is one of the symbols of the Camino de Santiago(The Way of St. James)? Click here to find out more about this famous pilgrimage!