The word alligator comes from the Spanish 'el lagarto', which means 'the lizard'.
It's thought early Spanish explorers to Florida gave the creatures this name.
The word candy came into English from the French sucre candi 'crystallized sugar', which is thought to derive from Arabic sukkar 'sugar' and qandī 'candied' - in turn based on Sanskrit khaṇḍa 'piece' (of sugar).
Apparently, the word corgi comes from the Welsh word corgi: 'cor' meaning 'dwarf' and 'ci' or 'gi' meaning 'dog'.
A corgi is a small, short-legged dog. In the UK, the corgi is a special favourite of the Queen of England. She has owned more than 30 corgis. So, if you have a corgi you have a special connection with Her Majesty, the Queen of England.
Possibly from the 1680s, the word curry comes from the Tamil word kari, which is a relish or sauce for rice.
In the past, people would claim that the national dish of England was fish and chips or a 'Sunday roast' but today, the most popular dish is curry.
From tin-openers to smartphones, most of us couldn't live without our gadgets.
Scholars are still debating its origins, but there are strong associations with 19th century sailors who used the word, which may derive from the French gâchette 'catchpiece of a mechanism' to refer to any small mechanical object which they couldn't remember the name for - or didn't have.
Jazz music was born in the African-American communities of the Southern states of the USA.
And, like many aspects of the music, the word also has African origins. Possible origins include the Mandinka word jasi and the Temne word yas.
The origins of the word kiosk are found in the French kiosque, the Turkish köşk and Persian kūshk. In modern British English, the word kiosk refers to small, often wooden, structures from which newspapers, snacks and tobacco are sold. Telephone boxes are sometimes referred to as telephone kiosks.
A muscle is in fact a little mouse, if you trace the word back to its Latin origin 'musculus'. Flexing a muscle was thought to look like a little mouse running beneath your skin.
The modern German word for owl is eule. In Dutch it's uil; in Danish ugle. Why so similar? They are all derived from the ancient Germanic uwwalon - which is a word that describes an owl's nightly call.
In modern British English, the sound an owl makes is often written down as 'to-wit, to-woo'.
A sheep, a cow and a pig went to market, a meat market, and there they were turned into food.
Thanks to the French language we can now differentiate between the live animals and the ready-to-eat versions; 'sheep' becomes 'mutton', 'cow' becomes 'beef' and 'pig' becomes 'pork'. Look out for these words on a menu near you.
Trekking is an increasingly popular holiday or weekend activity.
The word comes from the Afrikaans word trek, which refers to a long or difficult journey or migration, often by ox wagon.
The word tsunami comes from Japanese, meaning 'harbour wave'.
As we can see from the picture they can be devastatingly powerful.
Tuna comes from Spanish 'atún' and it's believed to have entered the English language around the 1800s.
Horror movies are full of zombies - scary dead people who move as if they were alive.
The word is thought to originate from the West African words zumbi meaning 'fetish' (Kikongo), and nzambi meaning 'god' (Kimbundu). The word may also be influenced by the Spanish word sombra, which means 'shade' or 'ghost'.
