clima (Spanish)

Where does "clima" come from?

Spanish clima was borrowed from Late Latin clīma, which had already taken the word from Ancient Greek κλίμα, originally meaning a “region” or “zone” and earlier a “slope” or “inclination.” That Greek noun came from κλίνω, “to slope” or “incline,” reflecting the old idea of climatic zones as bands of the earth defined by the sun’s angle. Over time, the sense narrowed from a slant or geographic zone to the modern meaning of “climate” or “weather.”} JSON```

Full etymology tree

• clima (Spanish), 'climate, weather'
  • borrowed from clīma (Latin), 'slope, inclination'
    • borrowed from κλίμα (Ancient Greek), 'a slope, incline, inclination'
      • deverbal from κλίνω (Ancient Greek), 'to bend, slant'
        • inherited from *klíňňō (Proto-Hellenic)
          • inherited from *ḱl̥-né-y-ti (Proto-Indo-European)
            • affix *ḱley- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to shelter, cover'
              • derived from *ḱléyti (Proto-Indo-European)
                • affix *ḱel- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to cover'
                • affix *-éyti (Proto-Indo-European), 'Forms aktionsart verbs from roots.'
            • affix *-né- (Proto-Indo-European), 'Forms mostly transitive imperfective verbs from perfective intransitive roots.'
      • suffix -μα (Ancient Greek), 'Added to verbal stems to form neuter nouns denoting the effect or result of an action, a particular instance of an action, or the object of an action'
        • inherited from *-mə (Proto-Hellenic)
          • inherited from *-mn̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs.'

Ancestors

• clima (Latin)
• κλίμα (Ancient Greek)

Descendants and derived words

• aclimatar (Spanish)
• microclima (Spanish)

Updated March 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris