levitation — a noun meaning “a rising or lifting in the air” — especially when it involves lifting someone in the air by supernatural means
levitaciόn — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning
When learning Spanish, one of the common verbs you will encounter is the verb “levantar,” which means “to lift.” The expression “levantar pesas” is “to lift weights,” and it comes up fairly early in vocabulary units centered on exercise. Later on, when learning about reflexive verbs, you’ll come upon “levantarse,” which means “to get up,” or quite literally “to lift oneself.”
In my 30 years of teaching Spanish, I saw students struggle to learn this verb because they didn’t see any relationship between it and the English verb of “to lift,” and they really didn’t see any connection between it and “to get up,” but when I could get them to think about the act of “levitating” and what it entails, they could much more easily recall and eventually learn the verb “levantar.”
“Levitate,” “levitation,” and “levantar” all come from Latin’s levis, meaning “light” as in weight or significance, not as in the opposite of dark. Another word of ours that is related to all of these is “levity,” which is a “frivolous lightness of manner” and is a term used most often to point out that something, such as a serious subject, shouldn’t be treated with such levity.
Knowing the connection to “light,” one can then easily learn the word “leve” in Spanish. This word describes something “mild.”
Since these words have the connection to lifting or raising, it may not surprise you to know that the word “lever” also comes to us from Latin’s levis, and more specifically from the Latin verb levare, which means “to lift.” “Lever” does not have a cognate in Spanish, however, but in Italian, the word is “leva.”
Perhaps you’ve now realized the connection to our word “elevate,” which simply means “to raise,” or “to lift higher.” That verb is “elevar” in Spanish, and an “elevator” is an “elevador,” but more commonly, it’s called an “ascensor” in Spanish because it’s a device that helps you go up or ascend.
The more your cognate cognizance improves, the more you elevate your lexicon in English as well as in Spanish (and other Romance languages), and you don’t have to have supernatural powers of levitation to do so.
Until next time. Consider upgrading to paid status, so you can listen to each episode and so you can receive these weekly instead of monthly. Thanks.
Tammy Marshall
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