SpanishDict

I am also searching for Spanish etymology online, but meanwhile, I make use of two books (remember those artifacts of ages past?): David Brodsky's wonderful Spanish Vocabulary. An Etymological Approach (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 2008), and Guido Gómez de Silva's Breve Diccionario Etimológico de la Lengua Española 2nda ed. (México: El Colegio de México/Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1998). The latter, which has 10 000 entries, is entirely in Spanish, but easily understood once you grasp the basic terminology and abbreviations. Brodsky, who also wrote the equally excellent Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r), looks at how words are formed, how they evolved (ever wonder about that initial e- in words like escribir and, for that matter, español? He explains it, and what a wonderful help it is to understand the rule), the Greek, Latin, Gothic, Arabic, and a few lesser contributors to the Spanish lexicon.

Both are books I turn to on a regular basis: Gómez de Silva for a quick rundown of the etymology of individual words (back to PIE, when applicable), and Brodsky for explanations of the evolutionary processes behind such things as why many (but not all) nouns ending in -ma are masculine: and which aren't--which is just as important.

From Gómez de Silva:

paloma 'cierta ave (familia: Columbidae)': latin palumba (también palumbes) 'paloma torcaz, paloma' (sentido implícito: 'pájaro gris'), del indoeuropeo pal-wo- 'pálido', de pal-, de pel- 'pálido'. De la misma familia: halcón, pálido.

From Brodsky's discussion of Spanish and other Romance words derived from early and late Latin:

Thus, in a number of cases, "early" Latin words (in some cases pre-Classical) form the base of Spanish and Portuguese vocabulary, while later ones are used in other Romance languages. In many of these cases, the word subsequently used by French and Italian represents a more "colorful" or "expressive" (Cicero would have said "vulgar" or "rustic") term.

Early Latin Later Latin Spanish Portugues French Italian

comedere manducare comer comer manger mangiare

mensa tabula mesa mesa table tavola

etc. Note: Block quote does not preserve spacing, and table mode doesn't seem to work as expected. So the terms don't line up, but you'll get the drift.

The best option if you are using Google Chrome is to just set a new search engine through your settings so that you can type, for example, "s comer" in the address bar to look up "comer" automatically.

Go to Settings, Manage Search Engines, and then at the bottom of the list type in "SpanishDict" in the first slot, "s" in the second slot, and "http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/%s" in the third slot.