List of Galician words of Germanic origin


This is a list of Galician words which have Germanic origin. Many of these words entered the language during the late antiquity, either as words introduced into Vulgar Latin elsewhere, or as words brought along by the Suebi who settled in Galicia in the 5th century, or by the Visigoths who annexed the Suebic Kingdom in 585. Other words were incorporated to Galician during the Middle Ages, mostly proceeding from French and Occitan languages, as both cultures had a massive impact in Galicia during the 12th and 13th centuries. More recently other words with Germanic origin have been incorporated, either directly from English or other Germanic languages, or indirectly through Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or French.
Most of these words are shared with Portuguese, presenting sometimes minor spelling or phonetic differences.
All along this article, any form with an asterisk is an unattested reconstruction, being therefore hypothetical.

Words incorporated in the Late Antiquity and High Middle Ages

Words exclusive to Galician, or with an early presence in local documents, have been frequently attributed to the Suebi who settled in Galicia and northern Portugal in 411, or alternatively to the Visigoths who annexed the Suebi kingdom in 585, although the later didn't settle in Galicia prior to the 8th century:
Some words were already recorded in Visigothic legal documents: tiufatus, gardingus, escancia, sagio, while some others have a very early documentation in Latin documents from Galicia: varón, barragán "young, strong man", escançan "serf " , gasalian and gasaliana "companion, comrade", saio "official", tiufatus "commander", roán "reddish", garda "watch", nastro "strip", osa "boot", sopa "sop, soup", roupa "clothes", roubar "to rob", albergaria "inn", teixón "badger", esculca "watchtower", estaca "stake", espora "spoor", ganhar "to obtain", gado "cattle", frasco "flask".
Usually, some words shared by Galician, Portuguese, Spanish, and sometimes also Catalan, Occitan or Italian, are considered of Gothic extraction: agasallar, aio, arenga, aspa, ataviar, banda, bando, barragán, bramar, brigar, brotar, casta, escanzán, escanzar, espeto, espía, espita, espora, estaca, estala, fato, gavián, gaita, galardón, ganso, garda, gardián, agasallar, gorir, grampa, grima, íngreme, látego, louzán, luva, malado, marta, rapar, rico, ripa, roán, roca, roupa, taco, tascar, teixugo, tosquiar. toldo, tregua, triscar. Other words as albergue, esculca, escuma, fresco, gañar, guerra, helmo, roubar, sopa, teixón, xabrón, which can be found in all of the Western Romance languages, are more frequently considered to be Germanic loanwords incorporated into Vulgar Latin, maybe in Gaul.
during the second millennium of our era
There is a number of Germanic words which Galician shares with French, but which are unknown in Spanish; these are either nautical direct borrowings, early importations into Iberia which felt out of use in Spanish, or loans produced independently in Galician and French: gaspallar "to shatter, to trash", faísca "ashfly", ripar "to scratch off" and ripo, ripanzo "comb", estricar "to stretch", especar "to prop, to shore", lapear "to lick", rafar "to wear away".
There are other words of Germanic origin which are characteristically Galician, being mostly unknown in Spanish: graba "ditch, trench", íngreme, esgrevio "rough, steep", deluvar "to peel, to rub", maga "sardine's guts", gaspeto "nail", bremar "to be anxious, to fret", gulapo "gulp", rispar "to snatch, to rub", tripar, trispar "to tread", tripadela "stomp", gueste "food offered to a group of workers", estinga "stingray", espolarte "bottlenose dolphin, killer whale", falcatrúa "evil deed, treason, cheat, mischief", rampelo "thin person/horse/cow", garimar "to lend, to bring close", escarpa "splinter, thorn; rough bark ", fouveiro "blonde", tasca "type of net", anazar "to mix something with liquids", nafre "nose" and esnafrar "to hurt one's nose".

Suffixes

At least two Germanic suffixes became productive in Galician, Portuguese and Spanish. The first one is -iskaz, avoengo 'property of the lineage', abadengo 'monastical property', mullerengo 'effeminate', andarengo 'swift', tourengo 'heat, mating season of the cattle', millarengo 'linnet', podenco 'hound'...

List of words

Many other words of Germanic origin were incorporated into the Galician language, most notably from during the 12th and 13th centuries, from French and Occitan, as French and Occitan culture had a massive cultural impact in Galicia during the Middle Ages.
Another large number of words, related to seafaring and navigation, were incorporated also through French, English, Dutch, or Frisian navigators.
Some other Germanic words have been incorporated recently, from English, Dutch, French, or Italian, but frequently with the intermediation of Spanish. Among them:
A few words have been taken directly from English navigators during the last centuries: