Check out this “quintet” of giraffes! I recommend you hit the audio playback arrow above for this episode.
quintet — any group of five persons or things
quinteto — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning
There aren’t many English-Spanish cognates that begin with the letter Q. In Spanish, you will only find the letter “Q” used when it’s followed by the combinations of “UE” or “UI.” That’s it. If you are attempting to place a “Q” in front of any letter besides a “U” then you are misspelling the Spanish word, and if you are putting any letter besides an “I” or an “E” after that “U” then you are further misspelling the word.
Thus, you get the combination of “que”— which sounds like the English “kay” — at the start of words like “queso” which is “cheese” or elsewhere in words such as “porque” which is “because,” but it will always have that same sound; and “qui” — which sounds like the English “key” — at the start of words like “quien” which is “who” or elsewhere in words such as “tranquilo” which is a cognate meaning “tranquil” or “calm.”
“Qui” also begins today’s cognate, and it begins the Spanish word “quinto” which means “fifth.” “Quinto” comes from Latin’s quintus which gave birth to all the words we now use in English to refer to things that are the multiple of five.
If you are one of five children born of the same pregnancy, you are a “quintuplet.” If you multiply something by five, you “quintuple” it. In Spanish, you do the action of “quintuplicar.” In math, a “quintic” is a quantity of the 5th degree. A “quincunx” is an arrangement of five items in which you put one item in each of four corners to form a square and the fifth item in the middle.
While “quinto” means “fifth” in Spanish, the word for “five” is “cinco.” “Quince” is “fifteen.” At first glance, to an English-speaker who doesn’t know any Spanish, that person would think the word was “quince,” which is a type of fruit; thus, Spanish “quince” and English “quince” are what we call false cognates. They look alike, but they do not have the same meaning at all.
That’s why you have to associate these “five-oriented” English words with their Latin, and thus their Spanish, roots of “quintus” and “quinto.” In Spanish, the word “quinientos” means “five hundred,” so you can see those root words appearing there, too.
In English, we have a few words that begin with “QUI” and refer to the number FIFTEEN. A “quindecagon” is a polygon with 15 angles and 15 sides, and a “quindecennial” is a 15th anniversary of something. Perhaps you are familiar with the popular Mexican tradition for girls called a “quinceañera” that takes place on a girl’s 15th birthday. I’ve been to a few, and they are very fun, and very loud!
I challenge you to go to the dictionary and find other English words that start with “QUIN” and refer to things that come in fives or in fifteens.
Until next time. High five!
Please share this with anyone you know who likes to learn about words.
Tammy Marshall
Quintet