Spanish

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From Middle English Spainish, Spanish, equivalent to Spain +‎ -ish.

• enPR: spăn'ĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈspæn.ɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænɪʃ

Spanish (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to Spain.

   Spanish borders

   • 2005, J. P. Sullivan, Martial, the unexpected classic, page 1:

     Whether Martial's heart was in the Spanish highlands or whether he was happy enough in Rome will be discussed later […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Spanish.
2. Of or pertaining to the people or culture of Spain.

   Hypernym: European

   Spanish cuisines

   • 1996, Oscar Zeta Acosta, “From Whence I Came”, in Oscar "Zeta" Acosta: the uncollected works, page 42:

     Though she was Indian like the rest of us, she had a fine Spanish nose.

   • 2007, Lynette Rohrer Shirk, chapter 1, in The Everything Tapas and Small Plates Cookbook:

     Spanish cuisine is not as spicy hot as Mexican, but it is flavorful and bright.

3. Of or pertaining to the Spanish language.

   Hypernym: Indo-European

   Spanish verbs

   • 1918, Julián Moreno-Lacalle, Elements of Spanish Pronunciation, page 12:

     Fundamentally, the Spanish vowel sounds are only five, even though as a matter of fact there may be different other sounds for such vowels as [a], [e] and [o].

4. (US, Canada, informal, nonstandard) Of or pertaining to Hispanic people or their culture.

Spanish (countable and uncountable, plural Spanishes)

2. (uncountable) A Romance language primarily spoken in Spain and in the Americas.

   Synonym: Castilian

   • 1873, Frederick Marryat, Mr. Midshipman Easy, page 163:

     "If he speaks Spanish, my daughter can converse with him ; she has but shortly arrived from Spain."

   • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXXVI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

     “You should read Spanish,” he said. “It is a noble tongue. It has not the mellifluousness of Italian, Italian is the language of tenors and organ-grinders, but it has grandeur: it does not ripple like a brook in a garden, but it surges tumultuous like a mighty river in flood.”

   • 1928, Otto Jespersen, An International Language, page 48:

     Therefore in Novial, as well as in Esp-Ido, we simplify the spelling in all words containing double letters in the national languages, from which the words are taken: pasa (E pass, F passer), efekte, komun (F commun, E common), etc. In this we follow the beautiful example of Spanish, which writes pasar, efecto, común, etc., and even extend it to cases in which Spanish makes a distinction in sound and spelling, as with ll and rr: bel S bello, F belle, koresponda, S corresponder, etc.

   • 1995, Hanna Pishwa, Karl Maroldt, editors, The Development of Morphological Systematicity, page 146:

     In contrast with the creole languages discussed above, the article systems of Rumanian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are more complex, since neutralization fails to occur to a large extent.

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:Spanish.
3. A town in Ontario, Canada.

• English or Spanish
• Equatoguinean Spanish
• Old Spanish

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Spanish terms
• Appendix:Spanish Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Spanish

Spanish (countable and uncountable, plural Spanish or Spanishes)

1. (collective plural) People of Spain, collectively.
   • 1976, Robert Rézette, The Spanish Enclaves in Morocco, page 62:

     The Spanish are not the only ones selling their goods along the wharves and the inner streets.

2. (uncountable) Spanish cuisine; traditional Spanish food.
3. (US, informal, nonstandard, collective in the plural) People of Hispanic origin; one whose first language is Spanish.
   • 1970, Henry Sioux Johnson, William J. Hernández-Martinez, Educating the Mexican American, page 87:

     Sixty-four percent more Spanish are functionally illiterate compared to Anglos in Lubbock (only 15 percent more of nonwhites than Anglos).

4. (UK, slang, obsolete, uncountable) Money.
   • 1797, Frederic Reynolds, Reynolds' Plays, page 13:

     Jack Ar. […] I must come back to father — and what then? — he won't give me the Spanish.
     Project. The Spanish! — now what the devil's that?
     Jack Ar. Why, ready money, not credit or paper.

• (people of Spain): Spaniards
• (people of Hispanic origin): Hispanics

• (money): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

• ISO 639-1 code es, ISO 639-3 code spa (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Spanish, spa ⁠

• phasins