Spanish words with corrupted meaning

[Maciamo]

I am currently reading a book in Spanish and watching a few series in Spanish as well. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to analyse a bit the language as I came across words that seemed to have undergone a change of meaning from their Latin root. There are of course many words like that in French too, but here I am focusing on Spanish. Italian generally remained truer to its Latin etymology.

Spanish	Etymology (from Latin unless otherwise specified)	Original meaning	Present meaning
atreverse	attribuire sibi	attribute oneself	dare
candil	candela	candel	oil lamp
ceja	cilia	eyelash	eyebrow
cigala	cicada	cicada	Norway lobster
cobijo	cubicūlum	bedroom	refuge, shelter
cobrar	from recuperare	recuperate, recover, get back	collect, cash, get paid
cordero	cordus	"born late"	lamb
cortar	curtāre	shorten	cut
doblegar	duplicāre	duplicate, double	defeat, beat, subdue
entender	intendere	hear	understand
enterar	integrare	complete, renovate	inform, notify
entregar	integrare	integrate	deliver, hand over, entrust
equivocar	aequus+ vocāre	be ambiguous, have more than one meaning	mistake
esperar	spērāre	hope	wait
éxito	exĭtus	exit	success
fracasar	from the Italian fracassare	smash up	fail, be unsuccessful
garfio	graphĭum	pen	hook
gordo	gurdus	silly, foolish	fat
lástima	blasphemus	blasphemy	pity, shame
lejos	laxus	ample, loose, lax	far (away)
llevar	levare	raise	carry, take, etc.
marchar	from the French marcher	walk, march	leave, go away
muslo	muscŭlus	muscle	thigh
nimio	nimius	abundant, excessive	insignificant
ostentar	ostentāre	show, display	hold, occupy
palabra	parabōla	comparison, proverb	word
plata	plata	plate, sheet of metal	silver
prender	prēndĕre	take	set fire / fasten, attach
pronto	promptus	prompt, quick	soon
pueblo	popŭlus	people	village
quedar	quietare	be quiet	stay, keep
raro	rarus	rare	strange
rescatar	recaptare	get back	rescue, save, recover
rescate	recapatare	return	ransom
restar	restare	stay	diminish / subtract, deduct
sigilo	sigilus	seal	discretion, silence
suceso	successus	success	event, happening
tener	tenere	hold	have
tormenta	tormenta	upheaval	storm

Note that esperar can also mean 'to hope', but the most common meaning is 'to wait'.

Feel free to propose more words.

 

[Nicu]

This happened fairly commonly in all the Romance languages, but its a pretty normal process in linguistic evolution; things change over time, meanings become corrupted, although that word is putting a kind of negative spin on it. In fact the inherited vocabulary of a language is more likely to have changed or evolved in some way, either semantically or morphologically, as opposed to borrowed words that were later taken in a learned or scholarly fashion, artificially preserving the original meaning.