# Gallicisms and Italianisms: borrowing from the cousins

> id: origins.romance.french-italian · category: origins · depth: standard · levels: B2 · review: internally_reviewed

**Summary.** Spanish keeps borrowing from its own family: French gave mensaje, jardín, hotel and the suffix -aje; Italian gave novela, piano, fachada and banca; Catalan gave paella and faena; Portuguese gave mermelada and chubasco.

French arrived in three waves. In the Middle Ages, along the Camino de Santiago and with the Cluniac monasteries: mensaje, homenaje, monje, jardín, jaula, manjar, vergel, dama, joya — and, more importantly, the suffix -aje (French -age), which Spanish still uses productively in viaje, paisaje, garaje, aprendizaje. In the eighteenth century, with the Bourbon court, came fashion, cooking and administration: hotel, chalet, restaurante, menú, control, detalle, bufanda, pantalón, blusa, corsé. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries added garaje, chófer, carnet, cliché, debut, élite, peluche.

Italian borrowing is concentrated in the Renaissance and Baroque, and it shows in the fields: literature and art (novela, soneto, madrigal, esbozo, diseño, modelo, fachada), music (piano, ópera, batuta, soprano), war (escopeta, centinela, escolta) and finance (banca, bancarrota) — Italian bankers taught Europe the vocabulary of credit. Later waves brought food: pizza, espagueti, capuchino.

The neighbours at home matter too. Catalan gave paella (originally just 'pan', from Latin patella), faena, forastero, entremés, capicúa; Portuguese gave mermelada, chubasco, buzo, mejillón, barullo. Two patterns are worth keeping in mind: words usually arrive with the object or practice they name, and the most recent arrivals are still being adapted in spelling, which is why you will meet both chófer and chofer, cruasán and croissant, bufé and buffet in real texts.

## Examples
- Dejé el coche en el garaje del hotel. — I left the car in the hotel garage. *(garaje and hotel are recent gallicisms; the -aje ending itself is French -age, borrowed in the Middle Ages.)*
- Leí una novela y luego fuimos a la ópera. — I read a novel and then we went to the opera. *(novela and ópera are Italian borrowings from the Renaissance and Baroque.)*
- Sirvieron paella y mermelada casera. — They served paella and homemade jam. *(paella comes from Catalan (a 'pan'), mermelada from Portuguese marmelada ('quince paste').)*

Related: origins.latin.romance-family, origins.modern.anglicisms, contrast.false-friends-fr

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