"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.)

* 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 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 levantar (p.67): "to wake up" should be "(reflexive) to get up".
* Headword misa (p.85): æ should be in italic.
* 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 cintura (p.100): Remove "Although cinch ..." and add cinch as a cognate.
* 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): "See also morado ("dwelling")" should be "See also morada ("dwelling")". The word morado should be a separate headword entry, and its sense of "purple" is from the color of mulberry. In both entries, there should be "Not to be confused with morada/morado" notes.
* Headword aéreo (p.128): área should be in italic.
* Headword catedrático (p.132): "Alco" should be "Also".
* 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 volante (p.142): volar should be in italic.
* Headword pretender (p.149): pretend in "English pretend" should be in italic.
* 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 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”)".
* Headword torpe (p.180): missing quotation marks in the parentheses for turpitude.
* 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 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; think of the difference between perro and pero."
* 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 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 falta (p.16): This word can also mean "foul" in sports. (thanks Marina)
* 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 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 ambos (p.19): Cognate with the first element of ambidextrous and ambivalent, i.e., ambi-. (thanks Miranda Metheny)
* 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 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 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."
* 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 obstante (p.34): See blog posting sin embargo and non obstante.
* 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 aceite (p.41): Append "and so remember the first letter a-" to "Arabic origin". Append "Or “Oil comes from seed.”" as a mnemonic.
* 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 acabar (p.46): Add "or acabar por followed by the infinitive; acabar de, “just (did)”."
* Headword sentir (p.47): "to feel" should be "to feel (by touching etc.); (reflexive) to feel (a personal feeling)".
* Headword gasto (p.51): 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 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 sida (p.67): Add "this word is used as a masculine noun in spite of -a ending because síndrome is masculine".
* 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 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 "See also tejado (“roof”)".
* 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 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”, “attemp”), 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 "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 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 vergüenza (p.84): A better mnemonic would be "feel guilt".
* Headword enterar (p.84): Append: It’s easy to confuse enterar with its doublet entregar. As a mnemonic, imagine an informant has to enter the door to inform you of secret news while a delivery man only needs to come to the entrance of your house. But be careful not to confuse enterar with entrar (“to enter”) or enterrar (“to bury”). See also entrega (“delivery”).
* Headword pelota (p.85): Also cognate with pellet.
* 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 piña (p.95): Change the mnemonic to "as a mnemonic, associate falling off a cliff with pain, or pena in Spanish"
. * Headword fallo (p.98): Add "The second meaning is probably a different word in this form and is related to hallar (“to find”), in which h- is from f-. See also hallar."
* 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 “passing through”. Or use a mnemonic ..."
* Headword llave (p.101): Add "Doublet with clave (“key”, “important part of an issue”; “music key”)" and "Note that this word, just like clave, is feminine."
* Headword desayuno (p.111): Add "English breakfast literally means "breaking i.e. ending fasting", just like desayuno does."
* 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 "This word 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 índole (p.121): Add "You can use a mnemonic such as “a man of indolent 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."
* Headword 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: Add headword disparate with definition "olly, 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”."
* Headword aldea (p.126): Change the mnemonic to “This village is under the scrutiny of DEA or Drug Enforcement Administration because of their drug trafficking problem”.
* 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”)."
* 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 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 with 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 sense, but anger is more like passion in this work."
* Headword quiebra (p.142): Remove the headword quebrar from this paragraph. Move the headword quebrada from p.219 to this paragraph. Remove the words about doublet.
* Headword rodaje (p.144): Add "Before digital technology, the tape was rolled in shooting a film."
* Headword 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."
* Headwords ligado, ligar (p.154): Append to the definition of ligar"(followed by con, “with”) to flirt, to make out, to hook up".
* 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 legado (p.161): Add "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."
* Headword filo (p.163): Add "related to or doublet with 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 "Use bring as a mnemonic."
* 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."
* Headword lienzo (p.176): Change "linen (cognate)" to "linen (possible cognate)".
* 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”)."
* Headword cabildo (p.179): Also cognate with capital, which may better help remember this word.
* Headword licitación, licitar (p.179): Add "Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “This small unknown company keeps soliciting a bid for this contract.”"
* Headword alojamiento, alojar (p.180): Add "Alternatively, use Hawaiian Aloha! as a mnemonic as if you’re greeted by a hostess at a Hawaiian hotel."
* Headword Platón (p.180): Add "But English has platonic (as in platonic love), and Platonism (“Plato’s philosophy”), Neoplatonism."
* Headword 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."
* 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.".
* 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 with 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 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 pulgar (p.210): Add a mnemonic "Give a thumbs up to BVLGARI (Bulgari) luxury goods for their high quality."
* 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 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 hito (p.221): Add "As a mnemonic, think of “hit a milestone”."
* 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): Delete 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.
* Headword 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 seta (p.227): Add "Alternatively, imagine a mushroom is a tiny round table in a park and you set a 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."
* Headword 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 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."
* Headwords aseo, arear (p.244): Change the whole paragraph to "aseo cleanliness, cleanness, tidiness; cleaning, limpieza; restroom, bathroom, toilet. aseado neat, tidy, clean. asear to clean, to wash, to tidy up. Cognate with assiduous (“hard-working”, “diligent”), assess, doublet with 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.”"
* 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.