"Yong Huang offers in the introduction a clear and detailed explanation of the methodology employed throughout the work, which presents a practical balance between scholarly research and light reading... Yong’s work is an important addition to the field of language study, and will be a welcome supplement to anyone’s vocabulary-building tools."
Edward A. Roberts
Professor Emeritus of Central Michigan University, author of A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language

"(Yong Huang's book) filled a niche on my language-learning bookshelf I hadn't even thought of before... the system works as an efficient road map to boosting vocabulary by steering readers directly to the most effective words for building understanding and fluency fast, while pointing out shortcuts and possible pitfalls along the way. It's especially useful for well-read adults and polyglots."
Miranda Metheny
Spanish Teacher at District of Columbia Public Schools, polyglot, volunteer admin of Facebook Polyglots group

⎢                                ⎡ Etymology ⎤
               ⎡ Word analysis <-⎢           ⎥-> this book
               ⎢                 ⎣ Mnemonics ⎦
Study method <-⎢
               ⎢
               ⎣ Rote memory (e.g. flash cards)

(The main text of this book arranges the words in the order of their usage frequency per Real Academia Española corpus, with index at the end of the book of the paperback edition. Cognates serve as the most important learning aid.)

* Near the end of REVIEW, the reviewer's last name should be Metheny, not Methenys. (Sorry, Miranda!)
* Headword éxito (p.28): éxito in the text, twice, should be in italic. Change the last sentence to "Sense development may be “going out” to “outcome” to “victorious outcome”."
* Headword acercar (p.29): Change the definition to "to bring closer; (reflexive) to approach".
* Headword juicio (p.33): Change to "trial; good judgment. Cognate with English judicious, judicial. Medial d was lost in history. Not to be confused ..."
* Headword etape (p.34): Change the text to "Cognate with staple, and if traced to Proto-Indo-European, cognate with step."
* Headword verde (p.43): Replace vigorous in the cognate list with verdure.
* Headword anunció (p.47): The spelling of this headword should be anuncio.
* Headword pelo (p.47): Change "Cognate with Latin pilus ..." to "From Latin pilus. Cognate with the second element of caterpillar, but not capillary, which nevertheless may be used as a mnemonic. Or use perro as a mnemonic and imagine the hairs on his body."
* Headword género (p.50): Delete from “Although Latin genus is the source for this word” to the end, and move the definition of "genre (cognate), style" to the second one, based on Google Translate frequency of translation for this word.
* Headword paisaje (p.62): Remove "countryside" from the definition and add "scenery". Change the second half to "Imagine you see a beautiful, wide-open landscape in the countryside. Or as a mnemonic, think of a passage in a landscape or scenery."
* Headword vaso (p.65): Remove "vase (for flowers) (cognate)" from the definition. Add "Cognate with vessel, vascular, prefix vaso- (as in vasodilator). While also cognate with English vase, they are false friends; Spanish florero or jarrón mean “vase”."
* Headword paseo (p.66): Remove the verb definition "to stroll, to walk" and change the noun definition to "walk, wide, stroll, promenade, tour, trip, outing". Append "Examples, un paseo / recorrido por la ciudad (“a city tour”); paseo en barco (“boat ride”)."
* Headword levantar (p.67): "to wake up" should be "(reflexive) to get up".
* Headword lentamente, lento, lentitud (p.67): Replace "Cognate with lenient" with "Cognate with the root of relentless, relent (“to stop”, “to delay”)" (and remove the later mention of lenient).
* Headword campeón (p.68): Remove "Connection of this word to English camp, Spanish campo (“countryside”), campesino (“rural”) is not substantiated."
* Headword entero (p.71): Replace "But of course the spelling entero is" with "Also, not to be confused with entro".
* Headword nube (p.91): Change "Cognate with nebula, nebulous" to "Cognate with nuance. Imagine the sky in which light clouds make smooth color transition from blue to white and blue again."
* Headword basura (p.92): "Syrian" should be "Iraqi". (thanks Oscar)
* Headword regalo (p.94): Change the etymology to "From French régal (“treat with good food”). Cognate with gala (“festive party”), regale (“to entertain”). Giving a gift is as merry and enjoyable as having a party."
* Headword puta (p.95): Change "one etymological theory states that this word is related to pure" to "its possible Latin etymon happens to be spelled the same as another word that means “pure”".
* Headword barra (p.98): Change the whole definition to simply "bar (cognate)(all senses)." The comment about slash symbol is not quite right.
* Headword trasladar (p.98): Change to "to move, to transfer. Cognate with translate. In spite of the cognation, this word does not mean “to translate”, which would be traducir. Note trasladar is more about physically moving or relocating things, unlike transferir."
* Headword cercano (p.100): Change cerca to circa because ca. is the abbreviation of the latter.
* Headword cintura (p.100): Remove "Although cinch ..." and add cinch as a cognate.
* Headword trama (p.111): Change "Cognate with tram, which goes around town like weaving through streets" to "Cognate with tram as a weaving term. But the other word that happens to be also spelled tram serves as a perfect mnemonic; a tram goes around town like weaving through streets."
* Headword cerdo (p.121): The definition "dirty (adj.)" should be dropped.
* Headword litro (p.123): The second "liter (cognate)" is meant to be "litre (cognate)".
* Headword mora (p.124): Remove the first meaning "default (finance)" as it's not very common. Change the whole paragraph to just "mulberry, blackberry. Cognate with the first part of English mulberry, mul-, with berry attached just to make a better sense. This Spanish word may also be translated as “blackberry”, even though mulberries and blackberries are two different fruits."
* Headword aéreo (p.128): área should be in italic.
* Headword catedrático (p.132): "Alco" should be "Also".
* Headword campamento (p.132): Replace "Synonymous with campo" with "Not to be confused with campo (“field”); suffix -mento is for a noun referring to the result of an action, i.e. camping (outdated verb campar, replaced by acampar), hence campamento not campo means “camp”".
* Headword piscina (p.133): "Cognate" should be "Doublet".
* Headword bota (p.140): Replace "This word is not a cognate with English boot" with "Probably cognate with boot" and adjust wording accordingly.
* Headword vínculo, vincular (p.137): Repalce "Related to wind (“to turn coils around something”)" with "Probably cognate with the root of province, whose original meaning is “office belonging to a magistrate” (folk etymology would have you believe province is related to conquest)".
* Headword volante (p.142): volar should be in italic.
* Headword traducir (p.148): Remove trasladar from the definition.
* Headword pretender (p.149): pretend in "English pretend" should be in italic.
* Headword mono (p.150): Replace "The second meaning ... Middle Dutch" with "Arabic origin. English monkey may be cognate".
* Headword replicar (p.160): Change the first definition to "to retort, to answer back". Change "This word does not mean “to replicate”, in spite of cognation" to "This word does occasionally mean “to replicate” especially in Latin America, probably under the influence of English".
* Headword legado (p.161): Replace the whole paragraph except the definition with "From Latin legatum (“legacy”, “bequeath”). The softening of the third syllable consonant in English legacy happened in Old French legacie < Medieval Latin legatia < legatum, from which Spanish legado is directly derived. Alternatively, as a mnemonic, think of -do as a kind of suffix (just like -ado or -ido for a past participle) so focus your attention on the first part of the word only. Not to be confused with ligado (“bound”, “tied”)."
* Headword borrar (p.162): Change "Latin source borra" to "Latin source burra".
* Headwords rata (p.165) and rato (p.44): Native speakers do not consider rato having the sense of "male rat" in spite of the entry in DRAE (and in the proverb Lo que has de dar al rato, dáselo al gato), and would say "rata macho" instead. "When you are referring to the animal, it's always rata or ratón." (thanks Julian)
* Headword calificar (p.166): "change" should be "to change".
* Headword funda (p.178): "fundir (“to found”)" should be "fundar (“to found”) and fundir (“to melt”)". Replace the last part with "Use a mnemonic such as “fold up the pillowcase”. Or think of the bottom (fondo in Spanish) of a pillowcase or knife sheath. Examples, funda de almohada (“pillowcase”); funda de cuero para cuchillos (“leather sheath for knives”)."
* Headword fianza (p.179): Remove the last sentence and add fiancé, fiancée to the cognate list. Append "In law, una fianza may be mandatory while un depósito optional. Examples, salió (en libertad) bajo fianza (“he was released on bail / bond”); fianza de 1 mes (“1 month deposit”)."
* Headword alcoba (p.183): Remove "alcove" from the definition of this word.
* Headword arcilla (p.192): Ths chemical symbol for silver should be Ag.
* Headword flecha (p.197): On line 4, "your" should be "young".
* Headword bendición (p.200): "From From" should be "From".
* Headword rotundo (p.202): redondo should be in italic. Add "Cognate with rotunda (“round building”)."
* Headword aval (p.219): à valoir should be in italic. Add "avow to guarantee" as a mnemonic.
* Headword vagar (p.227): The blank line following this line should be removed.
* Headword estirpe (p.229): "extirpate" should be "with the root of extirpate".
* Headword panza (p.229): Add after mention of German tank Panzer "the intermediate Old French word means “armor to protect belly”".
* Headword fosa (p.231): The sentence in the middle should be "If you don't know the medical term fossa, associate the first syllable of fosa with foundation and think of the low base".
* Headword llamativo (p.237): Replace all the text after the definition with "From llamar (“to call”). Suffix -ivo forms an adjective like English -ive."
* (Paperback only) Index hombro (p.265): Should be "hombro 69,(13)".

* Headword ciudad (p.13): Replace "But note ..." with "But in case of Spanish, you can also think of Latin v > Spanish u (by way of Old Spanish b)".
* Headword noche (p.13): Add "Or as a mnemonic, imagine indigenous people make one notch every night to record days. Note this word is feminine, just as tarde (“afternoon”, “evening”; “late”)."
* Headword pueblo (p.15): Append "and try pronouncing b as p then pu. Example, el pueblo mexicano es trabajador (“the Mexican people are hard-working”; note pueblo is grammatically singular)."
* Headwords verdad and verdadero (p.15): Replace the definitions with "verdad truth. verdadero true, real.
* Headword falta (p.16): This word can also mean "foul" in sports. (thanks Marina)
* Headword propio (p.16): Change the mnemonic to "this is my own property" or "property implies ownership".
* Headword real (p.17): To help remember the sense of "royal", note that many Spanish sports clubs call themselves real, most notably Real Madrid. (thanks Marina)
* Headword claro (p.17): This word can also mean "yes", "certainly". (thanks Oscar)
* Headword calle (p.18): Replace the bulk of the text with "If traced to Proto-Indo-European, cognate with the root of accelerate, i.e. Latin celer (“fast”). As a mnemonic, imagine your friend calling your name on the street" and append "Example, un coche aparca en la calle (“a car parks on the street”; note calle is feminine and note preposition en, but if the car is moving, use por instead)."
* Headword dinero (p.19): "The dinar or denar is a main currency unit in modern circulation in nine mostly-Islamic countries", according to Wikipedia. That's a perfect cognate if you know this currency. (thanks urdubyoddballs)
* Headword papel (p.19): Add a definition and explanations "; role. To remember the sense of “role”, imagine what role an actor plays is written on a piece of paper. Compare to the etymology of English role, which originally meant “roll”; an actor’s role is written on a roll."
* Headword ambos (p.19): Cognate with the first element of ambidextrous and ambivalent, i.e., ambi-. (thanks Miranda)
* Headword madre (p.23): Add cognate matron.
* Headword soler (p.25): Add to the end "The rule is that when there’s a stress on any syllable other than the first, the conjugated form begins with so-, otherwise sue-, which is the stressed form of so."
* Headword venir (P.26): Add "This word is irregular, e.g. yo vengo (“I come”), yo venga (“I (would) come” in subjunctive). But if you isolate ng in these conjugation forms and think of it as ñ or ni, they no longer look that irregular. This is actually based on etymology, not pure mnemonics."
* Headword escuela (p.27): "material escolar" should be in italic and the opening quotation mark should be deleted.
* Headword corazón (p.28): While suffix -ón is normally augmentative, corazón refers to "heart" regardless size. But one scholar said that the word originally referred to the heart of a warrior or lover.
* Headword carta (p.28): Replace the definition with "letter (what you put in an envelope); card; menu" to be consistent with frequence of meanings on Google Ngram.
* Headword miedo (p.28): Add "Alternatively, as a mnemonic, imagine a bad guy raising his middle finger and that causes a feeling of discomfort or fear."
* Headwords lejos and lejano (p.29): Change to "lejos (adv.) far, away. lejano (adj.) faraway, distant" and add examples "a lo lejos (“in the distance”, “far away”); de lejos (“from afar”); un lugar lejano (“a faraway place”)".
* Headword cámara (p.31): Remove definition "room" as it is uncommon and only used in certain phrases or compound words as antecámara.
* Headword llama (p.31): Move "claim" from the definition to the cognate list.
* Headword suerte (p.31): Change the bulk of text to "Cognate with sorcery, and sortie, which came from French meaning “an attack made by troops coming out from a position of defense”. The basic meaning is “coming out”. Raffle or lottery is basically a drawing game in which you draw a ticket out of many."
* Headword pierna (p.32): Just use pie meaning "foot" as a mnemonic; the foot generally speaking is part of the leg.
* Headword cama (p.33): Add mnemonic "stay calm in bed, or coma means deep sleep in bed".
* Headword corte (p.34): Add "court (either judicial or royal)(cognate);" in front of "cut (n.)" as a definition. Change "Cognate" to "In the sense of “cut” and “short”, cognate".
* Headword obstante (p.34): See blog posting sin embargo and non obstante.
* Headword jamás (p.35): Change the second part of the paragraph to "and -más means “more”. Treat the whole word as a syntactic marker for emphasis."
* Headword conseguir (p.35): Append "Examples, conseguí / obtuve un buen trabajo (“I got a good job”); consiguió / logró abrir la puerta (“he managed to open the door”)."
* Headword flor (p.36): Add "Note that this word is feminine; as a mnemonic, consider the fact that in most cultures, women are likened to flowers."
* Headword casa (p.36): Change text to "Cognate with a rare word chasuble (“outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy”). Casa Blanca, “White House”, refers to the US president’s office and is also the title of the famous movie. Alternatively, use case as a mnemonic and imagine a house like a case or box."
* Headword listo (p.37): Change definition to "(with estar) ready, prepared; (with ser) clever, smart" and add "Note the verbs used; it makes sense if you consider that estar is for the current state and ser for the regular, persistent, status."
* Headwords peligro, peligroso (p.38), milagro (p.93), Argelia (p.160): The alternative explanation is the metathesis between r and l in the word.
* Headword marido (p.39): Change semicolon before esposo to comma. Append "This word means the same as esposo, which is slightly old-fashioned."
* Headword aceite (p.41): Append "and so remember the first letter a-" to "Arabic origin". Append "Or “Oil comes from seed.”" as a mnemonic.
* Headword ganar (p.42): Add "ganado cattle, livestock; past participle of ganar. Ganado means “cattle” because cattle are captured or ganar-ed."
* Headword cumplir (p.43): Add "to comply (cognate)" to the definition and remove "Also cognate with comply..."
* Headword caber (p.44): Remove "to enter" from definition, and add capacity as a cognate.
* Headword salvo (p.45): Remove "safe (cognate)" from the definition.
* Headword acabar (p.46): Add "or acabar por followed by the infinitive; acabar de, “just (did)”; acabar con, “to end”, not “to end up with”, which would be acabar followed by the gerund of the verb or less frequently acabar por followed by the infinitive. Example, Schwarzenegger a Putin: “Usted empezó la guerra, usted la lidera y usted puede acabar con ella” (“Schwarzenegger to Putin: ‘You started the war, you lead it and you can end it’”)."
* Headword caer (p.46): Remove "Unless ..." with "with cadence, cadaver, the root of decay. The process of decay is likened that of falling."
* Headword sentir (p.47): "to feel" should be "to feel (by touching etc.); (reflexive) to feel (a personal feeling)".
* Headword jueves (p.48): "From Latin Jovis díes" should be "From Latin Jovis dies". Latin does not have letter í.
* Headword castro (p.49): Remove this headword as its frequency may have been artificially raised.
* Headword sombra (p.51): Append "Note in many languages, not even limited to Roman languages such as Spanish, one single word can mean either “shade” or “shadow”. Examples, el gato se queda en la sombra (“the cat stays in the shade”); sin sombra de duda (“without a shadow of a doubt”)."
* Headword gasto (p.51): Add "spending, expenditure" as the main meanings. Mnemonic could also be costear ("to afford", "to pay for") as in "costear ese gasto" since the two words are used in Spanish. (thanks Julian Descaillaux)
* Headwords bolsa, bolso, bolsillo (p.53): Append "The word bolsa is much more common than bolso and refers any type of bag even a garbage bag, while bolso refers to a bag finely made. If you prefer a mnemonic, note you say a with an open mouth but say o with your mouth somewhat closed, and note a general bag (bolsa) opens on top but a handbag (bolso) is closed."
* Headwords temor, temer (p.55): Add "If you know the 14th century Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur or Tamerlane, who committed widespread atrocities (just as Genghis Khan did shortly before him), use his name as a mnemonic."
* Headword valor (p.54): Add "Spanish valor is a false friend of English valor (“courage”, “bravery”) in spite of cognation."
* Headword perro (p.60): Append after "Uncertain etymology", "One theory considers the word an onomatopoeia, as if a dog makes the perr-perr sound, which at least serves as a good mnemonic. "
* Headword loco (p.65): Add a mnemonic "insane people are locked up"
* Headword sida (p.67): Add "this word is used as a masculine noun in spite of -a ending because síndrome is masculine".
* Headword gana (p.67): Replace "Uncertain or unhelpful etymology" with "Possibly related to ganar (“to win”). To win is a natural desire for most people."
* Headwords matar, matanza (p.68): Replace "Cognate and ..." with "The derived word matador (“bull killer in a bullfight”) has entered English."
* Headword disponer (p.70): Remove dispose from the definition and add "In spite of cognation with dispose, this word does not mean “to dispose of” i.e. “to discard”. English dispose does have a sense of “to prepare” but it’s becoming outdated. Examples, me dispongo a hacerlo (“I'm getting ready to do it”); disponer de dinero (“to have money available / at one’s disposal”, not “to dispose of money”)."
* Headword esquina (p.70): Change the mnemonics to "As a mnemonic, think of squint, one of whose meanings is “to look sideways”, and think of the corner of your eyes. Or think of exquisite corners of nicely built furniture."
* Headword cola (p.71): Add the definition "glue", and append to the paragraph "In the sense of “glue”, cognate with colloid (“a mixture of fine insoluble particles dispersed in a medium without precipitation, such as milk-water mixture”)."
* Headword plantear (p.73): Replace the whole paragraph with "plantear to propose, to pose, to present, to bring up. planteamiento approach; proposal, planning. Related to plantar (“to plant”). Proposing or raising an issue is likened to planting a seed. Alternatively, use plan as a mnemonic. Example, debemos plantear este problema en la reunión (“we should raise / bring up this issue / problem at the meeting”); planteamiento del problema (“problem statement”)."
* Headword biblioteca (p.73): Replace "Don't ..." with "As a mnemonic, imagine a library equipped with modern technology."
* Headword estancia (p.74): Add "cognate with stand".
* Headword techo (p.74): Remove definition "roof" as that is tejado. Add "Cognate with tile, tectum (“top of midbrain”), with the root of protect (literally “to cover”) and detect (literally “to take off cover”)." Change the mnemonic to "Think of the fact that an office building is technically equipped when Ethernet cables go above the ceiling." Add "This word may be translated as “roof” especially in figurative sense, but technically it should refer to just the ceiling, the in-house underside of the outside roof, which is tejado in Spanish. But some people make no distinction. Examples, techo alto (“high ceiling”); vivimos bajo el mismo techo (“we live under the same roof”); sin techo (“homeless”, sintecho). See also tejado".
* Headword guía (p.75): Add "Note that in spite of -a ending, guía when referring to a person is either masculine or feminine depending on the person’s gender; guío does not exist (except as the first person singular for the verb guiar)."
* Headword tocar (p.75): Add 3rd meaning to tocar "to be someone’s time or turn". Append to the end of the paragraph: "Note that to play a musical instrument, you don’t play (jugar) in Spanish but touch, as if Spaniards were more gentle to it. To understand the third meaning as in me toca jugar (“it’s my turn to play”), think of “I’m touched (by the invisible game moderator) to play”."
* Headword gira (p.76): Remove "although ...". Can add "To remember the difference between giro and gira, note the rule that a feminine noun is usually less direct or more abstract; a turn of of direction is more literal than a tour of a place. Examples, la gira europea de la compañía / gira de la compañía por Europa (“the troupe’s Europe tour”); girar a la derecha / 45 grados (“to turn right / 45 degrees”)".
* Headword pescado (p.76): Add "This word is actually cognate with fish if traced to Proto-Indo-European (*p- changed to f- in Germanic per the Grimm’s law)." Append "To remember the difference, note the past participle suffix -ado, hence “caught”. However, some terms are almost fixed, such as pescado azul / blanco (“blue / white fish”), which are more common than pez azul / blanco."
* Headword testigo (p.76): Change "or even, testicle" to "or if you don’t mind disputed etymology, testicle" and add "Note this word can be feminine when referring to a woman, e.g. la testigo; the form *testiga does not exist".
* Headword cebolla (p.77): Append "Or call an onion “this ball”"
* Headwords mentira, mentir (p.83): Add "Cognate with mendacious (“lying”, “not true”), mendacity". Remove "The meaning of ..." to the end.
* Headword risa (p.79): Append "risible (“about laughter”; “provoking laughter”)" to "ridicule".
* Headword ensayo (p.80): Change the whole paragraph to "trial, test, assay (cognate); essay (“literary composition”) (cognate); rehearsal. The English word essay no longer has the meaning of “attempt” or “test” when it was borrowed from Middle French as the French thinker Michel de Montaigne wrote his Essais (meaning literally “experiment”, “attempt”), which made essai a general word referring to the genre of literary writing. The English doublet assay still means “test”, specifically, “testing of chemical composition”."
* Headword zapato (p.81): Add "According to folk etymology about sabotage, workers threw their sabots or wooden shoes into machines, which would be clogged and stopped. Alternatively, you may have heard of the online shoe retailer Zappos, which was named after this Spanish word."
* Headword tejido (p.83): Change "tissue" to "tissue (cognate)".
* Headword vergüenza (p.84): Change the mnemonic to ver (“to see”) + chagrin (embarrassment at having failed”).
* Headword mancha (p.84): Add "Alternatively, use munch as a mnemonic and imagine a hungry baby stuffing himself with food and soiling his clothes, or “my cup of mocha spilled and stained my clothes”."
* Headword enterar (p.84): Delete "To inform" as this meaning is rare. Rewrite the whole paragraph as "(reflexive) to find out, to notice. From Latin integrare (“to make whole”). Cognate with integrate, integral, doublet of entregar (“to deliver”). It’s not clear how the meaning has evolved. Possibly to find out is to know the whole picture of a matter. As a mnemonic, imagine you enter a closed circle to find out their secrets. It’s easy to confuse enterar with its doublet entregar. As a mnemonic, imagine a delivery man gives you the package, so there’s the letter g in the word. But be careful not to confuse enterar with entrar (“to enter”) or enterrar (“to bury”; think of terrain). Examples, me enteré de lo que pasó (“I found out what happened”; note de should not be omitted); se entera de que tiene cáncer (“he finds out he has cancer”)."
* Headword pelota (p.85): Also cognate with pellet.
* Headword prima (p.85): "commerce bonus" should be "(commerce) bonus".
* Headword amparo (p.87): After "parar (“to stop”)", append "but they make good mnemonics; think of the word as “stopping something bad or dangerous before it comes”". This headword may be removed in future editions of the book as its frequency is raised by its usage as a proper noun.
* Headword salvar (p.87): Add to the definition "to salvage (cognate)" and append "Example, él me salvó la vida (“he saved my life”, literally “for me he saved the life”)."
* Headword compromiso (p.90): Add "Think of a commitment as a promise (promesa) made together (com-) with somebody. A true story is that a Mexican company shipped their parts one day late to a US client who wrote in English No compromise!, interpreted by the Mexicans as “No commitment”. Imagine the outcome! Example, anillo de compromiso (“engagement ring”, literally “ring of commitment”, or more literally “ring of together comitting”)."
* Headword sacerdote (p.94): Add "When specifically referring to a Catholic priest, the word is synonymous with cura (which, by the way, is a masculine noun), although common people may not know the difference."
* Headword vega (p.94): Remove this headword since it's not a frequent one, not nearly as common as prado (“meadow”).
* Headword piña (p.95): Change the mnemonic to "as a mnemonic, associate falling off a cliff with pain, or pena in Spanish"
. * Headworf azar (p.96): Add "chance" as the first definition and remove "hazard (cognate)" from the definition. Add "Cognate with hazard". It's better to add an example at the end, "Example, al azar (“randomly”, “haphazardly”)."
* Headword fallo (p.98): Add "The second meaning (“ruling”) is probably a different word in this form and is related to hallar (“to find”), in which h- is from f-. As a mnemonic, think of the fall of the judge’s gavel when he declares a ruling. See also hallar."
* Headword trasladar (p.98): Add "In the sense of “to transfer”, unlike transferir, this word is more about physically moving or relocating things."
* Headword retirar (p.99): Add "(reflexive)" to the definition "to retire". Append "Example, a los 70 años, el líder indiscutible de la izquierda mexicana ... se retira (“at the age of 70, the undisputed leader of the Mexican left ... is retiring”, said El País, the Spanish newspaper)."
* Headword plantilla (p.101): Change most of the text to "From planta (“plant”; “floor”; “insole”), a word that exists in Latin and Spanish. The base meaning may be “flat surface”; such a surface is where you can draw a template, is a floor of a building, and is where the company staff are."
* Headword llave (p.101): Add "Doublet of clave (“key”, “important part of an issue”; “music key”)" and "Note that this word, just like clave, is feminine."
* Headwords pimienta, pimiento: Add "In Spanish, if two nouns only differ by gender and one denotes the plant and the other the fruit ready to eat (or used in cooking), the former is usually masculine and the latter feminine."
* Headword serrano (p.104): Remove this headword as its frequency may have been artificially raised.
* Headword horario (p.104): Replace "hourly (adj.)" with "(adj.) time", and append "Note English hourly in the sense of “per hour”, “every hour” is a cada ora. Examples, horario de trabajo (“work schedule”); zona horaria (“time zone”)."
* Headword manteca (p.106): Change the definition to "(n.) fat, lard, butter (in Uruguay and Argentina)." and append "or “I see a block of butter on the mantelshelf above the fireplace” or “man takes butter” or imagine a fictitious Monte Queso (“Cheese Mountain”) is full of butter. Example, manteca de cerdo (“lard”, literally “butter of pig / pork”)."
* Headwords asesor, asesorar, asesoramiento (p.108): Change the cognate word from assessor to assess as the latter is more basic. Add "Note assess is generally translated into Spanish as evaluar or valorar."
* Headword cocción (p.108): Replace "To spot the cognation" to the end with "Also cognate with the root of concoction. This word specifically refers to the actual cooking of food, sometimes translated as “boiling”, “baking” depending on the actual cooking method, while cocina refers to the whole process of preparing and cooking food in general. Example, cocción lenta (“slow cooking”)."
* Headword cansar (p.108): Replace "Etymology ..." with "From Latin campsare (“to go around a place”). Probably doublet of cambiar (“to change”). Going around a place takes more effort than going straight through."
* Headword disponible (p.109): Add "Literally “that can be put aside”, but note the meanings between English disposable and Spanish disponible are different."
* Headword copia (p.109): Remove this headword since the meaning of "abundance" is not common and the meaning of "copy" is too obvious.
* Headword tramo (p.109): Change the text to "The first element is cognate with tract, related to traer (“to bring”), and the second element with the root of permeate. The word can be literally interpreted as “bringing to pass through”. Or use a mnemonic ..."
* Headword roto (p.111): Rewrite the paragraph as "roto broken; past participle of romper (“to break”). Roto is from Latin ruptus (“broken”), where p was omitted before t in pronunciation. Cognate with rupture, which, if you were to read it like a Spanish word, would sound close to roto."
* Headword desayuno (p.111): Add "English breakfast literally means "breaking i.e. ending fasting", just like desayuno does."
* Headwords desafío and desafiar (p.112): Add "defiance (cognate)" and "to defy (cognate)" to the definitions of the two headwords, respectively. Append "Not to be confused with desconfía (“mistrust”), desconfiar (“to mistrust”)."
* Headword recta (p.113): Remove the entry for recta but keep recto, because recta is used mainly as the fem. adj. of recto and rarely as a noun by itself. Can add "rectum" as a definition to recto.
* Headword jugo (p.113): Add "Not to be confused with juego (“game”, cognate with joke, jocular); as a mnemonic, note ue in juego and o in joke are both diphthongs (two vowels in one) but u in jugo and u in suck (or ui in juice) are not."
* Headword asunción (p.116): Remove this headword as it's not common.
* Headword gordo (p.116): Add "As a mnemonic, just imagine a fat man like a gourd."
* Headword trigo (p.117): Add the mnemonic "Or imagine in the old days when food was in shortage, on the night of Halloween, hungry little kids said “Trick or treat” wanting to get wheat, not candies."
* Headword pez (p.118): Add "Unlike most nouns ending with z, this word (as well as maíz) is masculine. For a female fish, say un pez hembra."
* Headword hueco (p.118): Add mnemonic "Use hulk (“an old ship stripped of all internal fittings”) as a mnemonic ."
* Headword cobrar (p.119): Add "cobro payment, charge; first person singular of cobrar (“to charge”; “to collect”). In English, the word cover or coverage is about the scope of insurance payment, while Spanish cobrar or cobro focuses on the payment collection" and a few examples "¿cuánto cobra por ...? (“how much do you charge for ...?”); cobrar una pensión (“to collect / receive pension”); llamada a cobro revertido (“collect call”, literally “a reversed collection / charge call”); caseta de cobro (“tollbooth”,cabina de peaje)".
* Headword palo (p.120): Append "except in beyond the pale" to "Cognate with pale (“stick”, a sense largely unused today".
* Headword ginebra (p.121): Remove this headword entry as this word, meaning "gin", cannot possibly be a common word (or replace it with Ginebra, "Geneva").
* Headword índole (p.121): Add "You can use a mnemonic such as “a man of indolent nature”. Or imagine an introvert person that aways stays indoors. Example, un hombre de índole / naturaleza tolerante (“a man of tolerant nature”)."
* Headword censor (p.122): Change the text to "Not to be confused with English censorship (censura in Spanish) or censor (same spelling in Spanish as noun, censurar as verb) (cognate). To remember which is which, as a mnemonic, remember to switch the second syllable vowel between English and Spanish, o to u and u to o, except for the noun censor which stays the same in English and Spanish. Or associate censura with basura (“trash”) as both are bad."
* Headwords desprecio, despreciar (p.122): Change the text to "In spite of the cognation, despreciar and depreciar have very different meanings. As a mnemonic, note the prefix des-, with one more letter s, adds an emotional connotation."
* Headwords disparo and disparar: Change "The root is cognate with either pair or pare" to "The root is cognate with the root of English prepare". Add headword disparate with definition "folly, nonsense, tontería; blunder". Append to the paragraph "The word disparate is a blend of desbarate and disparar, and the root of desbarate is the same as barato (“cheap”, cognate with barter), which used to mean “to cheat”. Spanish disparate, while cognate with English disparate (“essentially or fundamentally different”), has a very different meaning. As a mnemonic, think of somebody’s gibberish made up of disconnected, separated or incongruous words."
* Headword aldea (p.126): Change the mnemonic to "or imagine you’ll stay in a village for a whole day, or “this village is under the scrutiny of DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) because of their drug trafficking problem”. Or imagine there’s an Aldi grocery store in the village (Aldi is a German chain)." and append "Note that aldea is much less used than pueblo and refers to a small village or town."
* Headword acordar (p.126): Change the whole definition to "to agree; (reflexive, followed by de) to remember. Cognate with accord. Note the reflexive usage, which significantly changes the meaning. Examples, lo acuerdan por unanimidad (“they agree to it unanimously”); ¿te acuerdas de esto? (“do you remember this?”; do not omit the reflexive pronoun te, and the preposition de)."
* Headword Suecia (p.129) and Suiza (p.174): In spite of lack of d in the second syllable, Suecia, the name for Sweden in Spanish has e instead of i as part of the vowel in this syllable (as in Portuguese, Italian, but not French). In contrast, the name for Switzerland (Suiza) uses i. This is easy to remember if you notice the English words begin with Swe (regardless the pronunciation) and Swi, respectively.
* Headword trampa (p.130): Add "Mary Trump in her book Too Much - Never Enough (Spanish edition) says, “hace trampa como una forma de vida” (“he cheats as a way of life”)."
* Headwords soltar, suelta, suelto (p.131): Add "Note that o changes to ue when it’s stressed; the same happens to poder and puedo and many other cases."
* Headword lecho (p.132): Replace the last part with "As a mnemonic, associate a bed with a lecherous person, or imagine you drink milk (leche) while still in bed. Note as this word is not common, it’s better to only learn it for reading and say the more common cama instead."
* Headword comarca (p.133): Change to "The prefix co- may have been con- (“together”) or just serves as an intensifier, with no real additional meaning. The root -marca is also cognate with margin."
* Headword haz: No doubt this word is most frequently used as the imperative form of the informal second-person singular tú. So this usage should be placed before other senses.
* Headword auge (p.135): After "Arabic origin", add "but influenced by Latin augere (“to wax”; “to increase”), from which augment is derived."
* Headword tregua (p.135): Add "Use a mnemonic such as “after a long trek, this army was able to fight again and forced the enemy to accept a truce.”"
* Headword comprometido (p.135): Change the whole paragraph to "committed, engaged (adj.); compromising, difficult, awkward. Although this word comes from comprometer (“to compromise”), the first meaning may be better understood literally from its components, com (“together”) + prometer (“to promise”)."
* Headword gallo (p.137): Add "Gallic rooster is an unofficial national symbol of France, because in Latin, gallus (“rooster”) and Gallus (“Gauls”) are pronounced the same in spite of unrelated etymology."
* Headword sumo (p.138): Add "Doublet of suma (“sum”), which has a different meaning (not to be confused with the feminine form of sumo). To remember which is which, as a mnemonic, imagine a man as a mountain climber going to a peak and a woman an accountant summing numbers."
* Headword tardar (p.138): Move "to take time, to last" to the first definition, and add to the end "The first meaning is most common, e.g. se tarda una hora en hacer el trabajo (“it takes an hour to do the work”)." And add "Note a más tardar means “at the latest”, “no later than”, not “later”."
* Headword allende (p.140): Change the first mnemonic to “All end here; what you’re looking for is beyond or outside of this area”.
* Headword cólera (p.140): Add "The title of Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez’s El amor en los tiempos del cólera (“Love in the Time of Cholera”) uses this word as a pun taking both senses, but anger is more like passion in this work."
* Headword borracho (p.141): Change the mnemonic part to "try “drink porridge or borax if you’re drunk”; of course neither would work and borax should not be taken into the human body at all. This word is not related to borrar (“to delete”), but as a mnemonic, you can imagine a drunkard as a man with his memory and reason wiped out."
* Headword quiebra (p.142): Change the definition of quebrar to "to break, to crack". Move the headword quebrada from p.219 to this paragraph. Remove the words about doublet. Append "If you tend to confuse quiebra and quebrada, realize that quebrada is really a past participle of the verb quebrar turned into a noun so the referent is relatively concrete, while quiebra is a real noun describing an abstract concept."
* Headword rodaje (p.144): Add "Before digital technology, the tape was rolled in shooting a film."
* Headword dispositivo (p.144): Append "at our disposal. Note the stress of this word is on the second last syllable, -ti-. Example, un dispositivo de seguridad (“a safety device”)."
* Headwords charla, charlar (p.145): Add "Cognate with charlatan if we consider the common Italian origin of both words. Imagine a charlatan glibly talking about the product he’s peddling."
* Headword corbata (p.147): Add "Or use collar button as a mnemonic. Or just think of wearing a tie as corporate dress code."
* Headword barato (p.148): Add "Alternatively, use bajo (“low”) as a mnemonic."
* Headword hembra (p.148): Add "Technically this word can refer to an animal or a human, but mujer is much more respectful when referring to a woman. If you see the checkboxes for sex or gender in a form with just single letters H and M, assume hombre and mujer, respectively, not hembra and macho."
* Headword creído (p.149): this headword as its frequency may have been artificially raised.
* Headword vestuario (p.150): Remove "clothing" from the definition.
* Headword mala, maleta, maletín (p.151): Remove the headword mala as it is not a common word as a noun. Change "Mala is cognate" to "The root is mala and is cognate". Remove the last sentence "Note mala ...".
* Headwords ligado, ligar (p.154): Append to the definition of ligar"(followed by con, “with”) to flirt, to make out, to hook up".
* Headwords muelle, ligar (p.154): Remove the first definition "soft, springy or bouncy" and the sentence "In the first meaning ...", as this word is mostly used as a noun meaning "dock". Append "(cognate)" to the word "mole". Append "Example, un muelle de carga (“a loading dock”)."
* Headwords ficha (p.154): Change the definition to "file, record, token, counter", and add the verb as a headword "fichar to sign up; to file.". Append "Examples, inserta una ficha y empieza a jugar (“insert a token and start to play”); el modelo fichó por la marca de moda Emporio Armani (“the model signed (to work) for the fashion brand Emporio Armani”); Ficha de datos de seguridad (“Safety data Sheet”)".
* Headwords pinta and pinto (p.154): Remove these two headwords.
* Headword prenda (p.154): Move the definition "garment, single piece of clothing" to the first. Add/modify "Cognate with pignorate (“to pledge”) ... In the sense of “clothing”, it’s more common to occur in plural, prendas (“clothes”). It’s not clear how this sense came about. Imagine clothes could be used as a pledge in ancient times."
* Headword cima (p.157): Replace all the comments with "Cognate with cyma and sima, two architectural terms. You may well already know the frequently used Spanish word encima (“on top”, “above”), of which this word is the root. Alternatively, use summit or climax as a mnemonic. Example, en la cima de la montaña (“on the top of the mountain”)."
* Headword gozar and gozo (p.160): Replace the description (after the definition) with "From Latin gaudium (“joy”). Cognate with joy or the root of enjoy, with gaudy (“showy”, “ostentatious”). English joy is from French joie because the medial d of Latin gaudia (plural of gaudium) was dropped, g softened to j, and au changed to oi. Use a mnemonic such as “the Cossack people really know how to enjoy life”, or imagine a lady enjoying a party in her festive, gaudy, costume. Examples, gozar de / gozar / disfrutar la vida (“to enjoy life”; de is optional after gozar).".
* Headword patrocinio (p.162): Add "From Latin patrocinium (“protection”, “patronage”) < patrocinor (“I protect”) < patronus (“protector”) + -cinor (suffix to form a verb). As a mnemonic, think of the word as patron + señor."
* Headword ladrillo (p.163): Add "Unrelated to ladrón (“thief”). But you can make a mnemonic such as “a big thief (ladrón) steals lots of small bricks (ladrillos) at a construction site” (suffix -ón is augmentative and -illo diminutive)."
* Headword filo (p.163): Add "related to or doublet of fila (“line”, “row”) ... To avoid confusing the meanings of filo and fila, as a mnemonic, imagine a man holding a sharp-edged sword while a woman holding a line of thread."
* Headword beca (p.165): Change to "Either of Hebrew origin, or from Latin (through Italian) referring to a nobleman’s headdress which resembles a bird’s beak, therefore cognate with beak. Imagine a scholar wearing such a headdress being granted research fund. Or use a mnemonic such as “Rebecca got her scholarship."
* Headword arce (p.166): Delete the extra "with". Add "Alternatively, as a mnemonic, imagine two red-leaf maple trees on the two sides of a beautiful arc in a garden. Or imagine the legendary King Arthur not only defeated the Saxon invaders but also voyaged to Canada and saw mountains of maple trees."
* Headword atrever (reflexive), atrevido (p.171): Add "Not to be confused with atravesar (“to cross”, “to pass through”). You can use a mnemonic such as “to dare to traverse or cross the death valley”."
* Headword brindar (p.167): Append "The first part of the word is cognate with bring and the second part can use dar (“to give”) as a mnemonic. Examples, brindar / ofrecer ayuda (“to offer help”); brindis por su salud (“toast to your heath”)."
* Headword concebir (p.173): Add "From Latin concipere (“to conceive”), where the third syllable consonant p changed to b when inherited by Spanish but to v in Old French (hence English). Superficially, we can think of a b-v conversion."
* Headword mozo (p.174): Change the text to "There are various etymological theories about this word, including one that connects it to muchacho (“boy”). Alternatively, we know that the Biblical name Moses, according to one theory, means “child of” in Egyptian (see Wikipedia for Moses and its reference that states “Moses is derived from the common element in names such as Thutmosis (‘Thoth created him’)...)”. For lack of definitive proof, we can at least take Moses as a mnemonic for mozo and imagine him as a young boy or young man. Or think of the young music genius Mozart as a mozo. (The feminine form moza means “girl” but is not as common.)"
* Headword lienzo (p.176): Change "linen (cognate)" to "linen (possible cognate)" and add "Example, originalmente los lienzos eran de lino (“originally canvases were made of linen”)."
* Headword cocer (p.178): Change text to "In general, cooking is cocinar, while cocer specifically refers to cooking by simmering, boiling or steaming. Not to be confused with coser (“to sew”). Example, patatas cocidas (“cooked potatoes”; cocido is the past participle of cocer)"
* Headword socorro (p.178): Add "Imagine people run to rescue those buried beneath (sub-) debris. Examples, llamada de socorro (“distress call”, “SOS”); ¡socorro! (“help!”; ¡ayuda! can also be used but it implies less urgency)."
* Headword cabildo (p.179): Also cognate with capital, which may better help remember this word.
* Headwords licitación, licitar (p.179): Add "Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “a government official solicited a bribe when an unqualified company offerd a bid for the contract”. (Note solicit is an unrelated word.) Example, varias empresas licitaron la instalación del gas en la ciudad (“several companies bid / tender for the installation of gas in the city”)."
* Headword marear (p.179): Change the definition to a single one "(reflexive) to get sea-sick, to get dizzy" and add examples "marea alta / baja (“high / low tide”); la marea está subiendo (“the tide is rising”); contra viento y marea (“against all odds”, literally “against wind and tide”); me mareo mucho (“I get very dizzy”)."
* Headwords alojamiento, alojar (p.180): Add "Alternatively, use Hawaiian Aloha! as a mnemonic as if you’re greeted by a hostess at a Hawaiian hotel. Examples, alojamiento y desayuno (“bed and breakfast”); nos alojamos en el motel esta noche (“we stay at the motel tonight”; note the reflexive pronoun, literally “to lodge oneself”)."
* Headword Platón (p.180): Add "probably because a name ending with -o sounds more natural as the name of a person, like Cicero, Cato. But English has platonic (as in platonic love), and Platonism (“Plato’s philosophy”), Neoplatonism."
* Headword torpe (p.180): Missing quotation marks in the parentheses for turpitude. Add "Or imagine a sailor who was wounded on a ship hit by a torpedo is now clumsy in action. Examples, un hombre torpe (“a clumsy man”); ¡disculpe mi torpe inglés! (“excuse my clumsy English!”)."
* Headwords yacimiento, yacer (p.181): Change all the text to "Cognate with the root of adjacent. Think of lying down on the side of or adjacent to something. Examples, yacimiento arqueológico / mineral (“archaeological site / mineral deposit”); el cadáver yace en el hoyo (“the corpse lies in the pit”)."
* Headword conejo (p.181): Append "A guinea pig is un conejillo de indias in Spanish, literally “a little rabbit from Indias”; but it may be called by other names depending on the country."
* Headword constatar (p.181): The root is cognate with state (“to declare in words”). Prefix con- (which is from Latin cum “together”) may be considered an intensifier. According to F.E.J. Valpy, “Cum in composition increases the force of the simple verb... If one thing is put (cum) with another, that other thing is increased.”
* Headword contraloría (p.182): Add "Cognate with control. Back in Latin, the prefix was contra- (note a, not o) and the whole word meant “a counter-roll or register used to verify accounts”."
* Headword espeso (p.186): Change the mnemonic to "imagine thick Espresso coffee from Starbucks (or your favorite coffee shop)".
* Headword tos (p.187): Add "The second element of the name of the over-the-counter cough syrup Robitussin, i.e. -tussin, is from the same Latin origin (while the first element is from the original maker’s name)."
* Headword ruego (p.187): The word is also cognate with the root of abrogate (“to repeal”, literally “to ask away”).
* Headword bote (p.189): Add "To not confuse bote (masculine) with bota (feminine), imagine a woman wearing boots getting into a boat run by a man. Example, bote de basura (“trash can”, cubo de basura)."
* Headword águila (p.189): Add "If you know agarrar (“to grab”), use it as a mnemonic, e.g. el águila agarra su presa (“the eagle grabs its prey”)."
* Headword bodega (p.190): Add "Doublet of botica (“drugstore”, “pharmacy”, farmacia)."
* Headword acostar (p.191): Move the reflexive usage to the front and change it to "(reflexive) to go to bed, to lie down (literally “to lay oneself down”)" because this sense seems to be more common, and add to the end "The reflexive usage of the word is very common, e.g. es hora de acostarse (“it’s time to go to bed”)."
* Headword pizca (p.193): Use a mnemonic such as "a small piece of pizza".
* Headword césped (p.193): Use a mnemonic such as "The grass around the cesspit or the sewage pit is greener."
* Headword afinar (p.195): Due to possibly incorrect lemmatization of the word form in the frequency list, this headword should be replaced with "afín related, akin, similar; relative through marriage (n.). The noun is both masc. or fem. Cognate with affinity."
* Headword suspiro (p.195): The root is also cognate with the root of aspire (originally "to breathe onto"), conspire (originally "to breathe together"), inspire ("to breathe in"), etc.
* Headword flecha (p.197): Add "You may know a person by the name Fletcher as that’s a common last name, and his ancestor must be an arrow maker."
* Headword abad (p.201): Add "This word is masculine. A female abbot, or rather, abbess, is abadesa in Spanish. "
* Headword rezar (p.202): Add "At least as a mnemonic, imagine a religious man saying a prayer by reciting a scripture."
* Headword araña (p.204): Change the text to "In the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Arachne, a shepherd’s daughter, challenged Athena to a weaving contest. When Athena could find no flaws in the tapestry Arachne had woven, the goddess became enraged and beat the girl with her shuttle. After Arachne hanged herself out of shame, she was transformed into a spider. (Wikipedia) In all major Romance languages, the word for “spider” is derived from the name Arachne, by way of Latin. Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “A spider must be good at arranging things because she’s so methodical in weaving her web.”"
* Headword tormenta (p.206): Add "To remember which is which (about the meanings of tormenta vs tormento), as a mnemonic, imagine a man is tormented or tortured while a woman goes through lesser hardship as riding out a thunderstorm. (In etymology, tormenta is from the plural of Latin tormentum, whose origin means “turning”, “twisting”; recall the plural of English datum, i.e. data. As a mnemonic, you may think of a single twist for torture, but multiple as a tornado or storm.)"
* Headword huésped (p.207): Add "Note that this word is masculine. Its feminine is huéspeda."
* Headword agarrar (p.207): Add "Or if you know águila, use that, e.g. el águila agarra su presa. (“the eagle grabs its prey”)."
* Headword verdugo (p.209): Add "Or as a mnemonic, imagine an executioner beats the man into dizziness or vertigo before executing him."
* Headword sastre (p.209): Add as a cognate "sartorius (“the long, thin muscle that runs down the length of the thigh”)".
* Headword pulgar (p.210): Add a mnemonic "Give a thumbs up to BVLGARI (Bulgari) luxury goods for their high quality."
* Headword empeñar (p.210): Change the definitions to "(reflexive) to insist, to be determined, to make an effort; to pawn." and add an example "Juan se empeña en leer su libro en el cuarto (“Juan insists that he read / is determined to read his book in the room”)".
* Headword prórroga (p.210): Change text to "Cognate with prorogue (“to discontinue”), which has an outdated sense of “to defer”. The pró- prefix means “forth”. Note the double r, so it’s pronounced as a trill instead of a tap or flap (like perro vs pero)." Add headword "prorrogar to extend, to defer", and append "As a mnemonic, think of forward” (pro-) and rolling, so “roll forward”. Example, prorrogan suspensión de vuelos debido a el covid-19 (“they extend the suspension of flights due to Covid-19”)."
* Headword hazaña (p.212): Change part of the text to "Generally considered of Arabic origin. But some believe it’s related to hacer (“to do”). Think of the imperative form of hacer for tú, i.e. haz. Alternatively, use a mnemonic". And add a mnemonic "“Let’s celebrate your achievement by eating lasagna tonight”".
* Headword alambre (p.212): Add "imagine “Al is hungry (Al tiene hambre) and wants to eat kebab roasted on skewers that look like wires”."
* Headword chapa (p.214): Add "car body work (as in chapa y pintura)" to the definition, and add "or “The chap (guy) works at a paint and body shop.”" to the end of this paragraph.
* Headword corral (p.214): After "From Latin currus (“chariot”)", append "which later changed to a word that meant “a place to keep a chariot”".
* Headword idóneo (p.215): Add "ideal" as a definition, and add "Use ideal as a mnemonic".
* Headword colchón (p.216): Cognate with quilt, quoit, and possibly with cushion, which obviously serves as a perfect mnemonic.
* Headword anteojos (p.218): Add "Note the meaning is very different from antojo (“whim”, “craving”). To remember which is which, as a mnemonic, consider that ante- fully spelled out literally refers to a concrete object while ant- refers to an abstract concept."
* Headword cojo (p.218): Add a mnemonic "or “the clinical trial recruited a cohort of lame people”".
* Headword hito (p.221): Add "As a mnemonic, think of “hit a milestone”."
* Headword cualquiera (p.223): This headword should be moved to p.13, and add its apocopic form cualquier. Change the whole paragraph to "cualquier any (adj., before noun). cualquiera any (adj.); anyone, whoever (n. or pron.). From cual (“which”) + quiera (“it may want”). Example, cualquier cosa / una cosa cualquiera (“anything”, “whatever thing”; note cualquier before the noun while cualquiera after). Cualquier cosa is much more common."
* Headword grieta (p.223): Add "As a mnemonic, imagine seeing cracks in ancient Greek architecture."
* Headword hormiga (p.223): Or as a mnemonic, think of the last Greek letter omega as if it represents something small like an ant.
* Headword mutis (p.224): Remove this headword because it's a rare word. It must have been included in the RAE frequency list because it's the name of some popular person or other type of proper noun. It's more common to say salida for the theater exit, and chitón or shh for a silence request.
* Headword pepita (p.225): Suffix -ita is diminutive just as -kin is for English pumpkin (also seen in napkin and others). See Wiktionary. By the way, English pumpkin itself occurs more frequently than Spanish calabaza probably due to the Thanksgiving and Halloween traditions which do not exist in Spanish-speaking countries.
* Headwords estrago, estragar (p.225): Replace text with "Possibly cognate with destroy, strew, or according to E.A. Roberts, with strategy. If you know trago (“gulp”, cognate with dragon), use that as a mnemonic. Or use a mnemonic such as “struggle to prevent destruction”, “a strategy to destroy the city”, or “The city-state was destroyed after the governor was strangled to death”."
* Headword restaurar (p.226): "has nothing to do with restaurant" should be "is a false friend of restaurant".
* Headword seta (p.227): Add "Alternatively, imagine a mushroom is a tiny round table in a park and you set a table, or you sit down at the table."
* Headword panza (p.229): Add "A German tank in WWII is often called Panzer (meaning “armor”), which is a cognate if traced to Latin. Alternatively, as a mnemonic, think of the fat body of a tank or panzer as a bulging belly."
* Headwords suegra, suegro (p.227): Add "Use a mnemonic such as Mi suegro es sueco (“My father-in-law is Swedish”)".
* Headword alcázar (p.233): Change text to "The word is from Arabic, which in turn came from Latin, and is cognate with castle. Al- in Arabic is equivalent to the in English."
* Headword galleta (p.234): Add a mnemonic "imagine eating too many cookies harms your gall bladder; it’s unhealthy anyway".
* Headword porteño (p.236): Add "The Port of Buenos Aires is not among the top in the world. But in the 16th century, it was well known and its name back then, Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires, made the Spanish word porteño specifically refer to the residents of this city."
* Headword hincha (p.236): Add "Alternatively, use henchman (“faithful follower”) as a mnemonic."
* Headword madero (p.238): Add "This word is not used as frequently as madera and generally refers to a specific piece of wood. The derogatory sense of “cop” is probably from likening a cop to a senseless and dumb piece of wood."
* Headword alarde (p.241): Add "As a mnemonic, remove al-, which can be considered a prefix (many Spanish words of Arabic origin have this “prefix”), and imagine someone ardently boasting of something. "
* Headwords aseo, arear (p.244): Change the whole paragraph to "aseo cleanliness, cleanness, tidiness; cleaning, limpieza; (Spain) restroom, bathroom, toilet. aseado neat, tidy, clean. asear to clean, to wash, to tidy up. Cognate with assiduous (“hard-working”, “diligent”), assess, doublet of asentar (“to place”, “to settle”), asiento (“seat”). The root of the word means “to seat”, “to make sit down”. To make things sit down is to put them in place, or to tidy them up. Or use a mnemonic such as “Arthur likes cleanliness. He always keeps things tidy.” Or think of a cleaning equipment sold at Sears department store (remember to drop a- as done to many words of Arabic origin, even though this one is not). To remember aseo as “restroom”, think of ass. Not to be confused with asar (“to roast”)."
* Headword indumentaria (p.244): Add mnemonic "“Some undocumented immigrants work in the clothing industry.”"
* Headword apuro (p.244): Add "Alternatively, as a mnemonic, think of the ascetic life of a puritan."
* Headword coto (p.245): Change the mnemonic to "imagine a cottage in a hunting preserve, or a colt (“young horse”). Or “A hunter cannot exceed the allowed quota in this hunting preserve.”
* Appendix: Add: Not all parts of a word have equal weight in serving as memory clues. Generally, the first part is more important. This makes a simple dictionary lookup sensible. For example, in looking for a word to help you remember acera (“sidewalk”), unless you already thought of it, check a Spanish dictionary for the words adjacent to it, and you’ll see acero (“steel”). (The latter has a higher frequency so you may have learned it before acera.) So imagine a sidewalk with handrails made of steel. Instead of matching from the very beginning of a word, you can of course focus on the part after dropping the initial prefix or prefix-like letters. If you don’t know acero, use Sarah as a mnemonic; just remember to strip a- of acera and think. Similarly, many words of Arabic origin can be stripped of al- and you conjure up mnemonics from the remaining part of the word.
* Another good Spanish etymology Web site, Origen de las palabras. (thanks urdubyoddballs)
* Last but not the least: Ms. Marina's well-written review correctly points out my overly casual use of the term cognate (as well as doublet) throughout the book. Technically, two words are cognates only if they are in two languages sharing a common ancestor language and the two words independently descend from the origin (etymon) in the ancestor language. Due to the latter requirement, an English word that came from Latin, cannot be a cognate with the Spanish word derived from that Latin word, because the ancestor of English is Germanic, whose ancestor is Proto-Indo-European, which is also the ancestor of Latin (one of the Italic languages). If the English and the Latin words were each independently traced to a common Proto-Indo-European word, they would be cognates; otherwise, they can only be akin or related. Nevertheless, this book adopts a common usage of the term cognate, as understood by most educated English-speaking people not specialized in philology or linguistics.