Amigo Enemigo Conmigo

[laepelba]

Just pondering - there must be some etymological connection between these words.... Right? Are there others? (Perikles?)

[Rusty]

The first two share a common ending that comes from the Latin 'mīcus'.
amīcus
inimīcus

The ending of the first-person comitative 'conmigo' comes from another Latin word, however. 'Conmigo' is actually a combination of two words - Spanish 'con' and Latin-derived 'migo' (from 'mecum' ('with me')). In Latin, the preposition 'cum' ('with') is used postpositionally with the personal pronouns.

The second-person comitative is 'contigo' (from Spanish 'con' + Latin 'tecum' ('with you')), and there is a reflexive third-person form - 'consigo' (from 'con' + 'secum').

[laepelba]

Thanks, Rusty - these connections always help me remember more vocabulary! I meant to get back to this thread sooner ... it seems that every school year they have us more and more busy.

Anyway, I stumbled across this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_prepositions#con - and find it interesting that "conosgo" and "convosgo" aren't used....

[Rusty]

You're welcome.

Thanks for the link to the article about prepositions. Every student of Spanish should be able to take something away from it.

[laepelba]

I actually really like all of Wikipedia's grammar articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spanish_grammar

[Don José]

it seems that every school year they have us more and more busy.

I think I read somewhere you are a teacher. Does this "us" mean teachers? If so, it is the same in Spain.