Since the very first time I visited the Prado museum in Madrid, Spain, I knew its name translated to “meadow” in English and that it had been named that due to the meadow that was there when it was first being built in 1785 — it is now surrounded by the city. It was going to be called something else, but everyone called it “el prado,” for “the meadow,” and the name stuck.

Recently, I’ve been on a number of long drives across parts of Nebraska, and the wild sunflowers are in splendid bloom, especially across the prairies and in the roadside ditches. I got to thinking about the word “prairie” and its relatively strange spelling. Turns out we took it from French, a Romance language, and French took their word from the common spelling of the Latin word for “meadow” which is pratum. Spanish created its word for “meadow,” “prado,” from that same Latin word. A “prairie” and a “meadow” are kind of the same thing — it’s more a sense of scale that differentiates between the two entities. Thus, the Spanish word for “prairie” also came from the same Latin source.

prairie — a stretch of land that is covered mostly in grass

pradera — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning

Because a “meadow” and a “prairie” are essentially the same thing — stretches of land covered in grass — some translations will offer up “prado” for “prairie,” too. I believe that if all the historical information I’ve seen over the years about the Prado Museum would use the word “prairie” instead of “meadow,” I would have made the connection a long time ago instead of having a hard time associating the word “prado” with our word “meadow,” to which it bears no likeness.

It certainly bears a likeness to “prairie,” however. In both “prado” and “pradera,” it is only that initial “p,” “r,” and “a” that contain the likeness. Because of that and the strange way (thanks to us taking it from French’s praierie) we spell “prairie,” I never really connected the dots even though now, looking at the words side by side, it seems very obvious that they are related, or cognates.

Our word of “meadow” comes down to us from Old English. Once again, I believe we now differentiate between the two words based more on how expansive the land covered in grass is. If it’s huge and goes on and on, we call it a “prairie,” but if it’s somewhat contained and even picturesque, we call it a “meadow.”

Either word, though, can be “prado” in Spanish, while “prairie” is simply “pradera.” If you’re a fan of the book series “Little House on the Prairie” and ever want to read the books in Spanish translation, look for “La Casa de la Pradera.”

And if you ever get to Madrid, be sure to visit the very much non-meadowlike museum named for the meadow in which it once stood — El Prado.

Until next time. This is September’s free post, and this is my birthday month. If you’re so inclined at all to grant me a birthday wish, upgrade to paid status for at least one month to receive these weekly posts, to have access to the full archive of more than 200 posts, and to have access to the audio versions of each where you can hear me reading them to you.

Tammy Marshall

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