Some descendants of Latin comparatives, part 2: Comparisons in English, Spanish, and Latin

[This entry is an excerpt from Chapter 20, "Some descendants of Latin comparatives", of Part II of the open-source textbook Spanish-English Cognates: An Unconventional Introduction to Spanish Linguistics.]

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Comparisons in English, Spanish, and Latin

Comparative adjectives

In linguistics, comparison refers to the use of expressions to indicate the relative degree or amount of property or quality in terms of the adjective or adverb that express that quality in the language. Comparative adjectives (and adverbs) are in some languages derived from the basic adjective by means of inflections, such as suffixes (cf. Part I, Chapter 5). Eng. bigger is thus a regular comparative of the adjective big: big+er. The only ‘irregularity’ has to do with the spelling of the sound [ɡ], with by convention is spelled 〈gg〉 after the suffix ‑er ([əɹ]) is added. It many languages, it is common for some of these derived comparative adjectives to be irregular, however, such as the comparative adjective better in English or mejor ‘better’ the Spanish. Do note that this is not the only ‑er suffix that English has, for there is at least one other one, namely the native agentive suffix ‑er that has a different source, namely Proto-Germanic *‑ari, which is a cognate with Latin ‑or.

Another way of deriving comparatives is syntactic, not morphological, by forming a phrase out of the adjective and a modifier, such as more or less in English, as in the expressions more interesting or less interesting (cf. Sp. más interesante and menos interesante). As we can see, English has morphological as well as syntactic comparatives, including a number of irregulars, as shown in Table 167. Spanish, on the other hand, has irregular morphological comparatives as well as syntactic ones, but lacks regular morphological ones

Comparative type	English examples	Spanish examples
Morphological (suffixed), regular	bigger, smaller	—
Morphological, irregular	better (*gooder, *more good)	mejor (=más bueno)
Phrasal (regular)	more (or less) interesting	más (or menos) interesante

Table 167: Types of comparatives

Note that English has five irregular comparatives: better (< good), worse (< bad), less (< little), more (< much), and further/farther (< far). In English, irregular comparatives normally block the creation of regular ones such as *gooder or *badder or *more good and *less bad, though badder was used for a while and it still exists colloquially in some dialects, for at least some senses of bad, and less bad is also used in some contexts. Spanish too has a handful of irregular comparatives, namely mayor (< grande), menor (< pequeño), mejor (< bueno), peor (< malo), all of which descend from Latin, where they were already irregular, unanalyzable comparatives. However, in Spanish, it is possible to use regular synonyms of these adjectives, such as más grande and más pequeño, which are equivalent to mayor and menor in some contexts. In Spanish, más bueno and más malo are also perfectly good alternatives to mejor and peor.

As we saw, in English there are two regular ways to form comparatives, but which one we used is determined by characteristics of the adjective easy. If the adjective has one syllable or if it has two syllables and ends in ‑y, then the comparative is formed by adding ‑er. Thus from big we get bigger and from silly we get sillier. Notice that the ‑y of the adjective changes to ‑i in the spelling, though it is pronounced the exact same way: [ˈsɪ.li] - [ˈsɪ.li.əɹ]. All other comparatives are formed by adding more (or less) before the adjective. For all other two-syllable adjectives and more than two-syllable adjectives, English uses the phrasal method of forming comparatives. English also uses the phrasal method with adjective derived from verbal past participles by conversion, even if they are less than two-syllables long, such as bored, whose comparative is more bored, not *boreder.

Regular comparatives in Classical Latin were formed by suffixes, much like the comparatives of short English adjectives, with the suffix being ‑ĭōr‑ which, interestingly, is a cognate of the English comparative suffix ‑er, since they both descend from the same Proto-Indo-European suffix. The Latin endings were a bit more complicated because of all the cases involved and the different inflections that were added to the comparative suffix. Thus, for example, the comparative of the adjective longus, feminine longa, neuter longum ‘long’ (Sp. largo/a), meaning ‘longer’ (Sp. más largo/a) had the following wordforms in the different cases, genders, and numbers:

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	longior	longius		longiōrēs	longiōra
Genitive	longiōris			longiōrum
Dative	longiōrī			longiōribus
Accusative	longiōrem	longius		longiōrēs	longiōra
Ablative	longiōre			longiōribus
Vocative	longior	longius		longiōrēs	longiōra

Vulgar Latin simplified this system by switching to a phrasal or analytic system of comparatives. In different parts of the (Vulgar) Latin-speaking world two different analytic solutions arose. One was to use magis ‘more’, an adverbial form of the adjective magnus ‘big’, before the adjective. That was the route that the Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula followed. In Spanish magis changed to más, in Portuguese to mais, and in Catalan to més. Other Romance languages, such as French and Italian, used the Latin word plūs, also meaning ‘more’, or ‘more much’, which was the irregular comparative form of the adjective multus ‘much, many’. This resulted for instance in the French comparative adverb plus [ply] and the Italian più [pi̯u].

Romance language	Adjective ‘big’	Comparative ‘bigger’
Spanish	grande	más grande
French	grand	plus grand

Finally, we should note that not only adjectives can be compared, but other parts of speech too. Adverbs, for example, can also be compared and most adverbs are derived from adjectives, by means of the suffix ‑ly in English and the suffix ‑mente in Spanish (cf. Part I, Chapter 5, §5.5, §5.6.2.4). The comparison of adverbs is always done phrasally in both English and Spanish by means of the adverbs Eng. more and Sp. más, or their opposites, Eng. less and Sp. menos, e.g. Eng. more quickly and Sp. más rápidamente.

Nouns are also compared by means of quantifiers, both in English and in Spanish, cf. Eng. more, less, fewer, and Sp. más, menos, as in more/less rice and Sp. más/menos arroz, and Eng. more/fewer books and Sp. más/menos libros. (In standard English, fewer is preferred instead of less for countable nouns, though generalizing less to all types of comparisons is perhaps the norm in speech, e.g. I read fewer/less books now than when I was a student = Sp. ‘Leo menos libros ahora que cuando era estudiante’.)

Superlatives

There is another type of adjectives used in comparison, one that is closely related to comparatives, namely superlative adjectives. In English they are formed in an analogous manner to the comparatives. The irregular cases are best, worst, least, most, and furthest/farthest. The rest are formed by adding ‑est instead of ‑er or most instead of more, e.g. biggest, most interesting, etc. In Spanish, superlatives are identical to comparatives, with the only difference that they are always accompanied by the definite article (el, la, los, las), since superlatives always refer to unique entities. Note that in English too, superlatives are always preceded by the definite article the, e.g. the most interesting class.[1]

Comparative type	English examples	Spanish examples
Morphological (suffixed), regular	biggest, smallest	—
Morphological, irregular	best (*goodest, *most good)	(el) mejor (=más bueno)
Phrasal (regular)	most interesting	(el) más interesante

Table 168: Types of superlatives

Spanish, as we can see, has a few irregular comparatives, namely mejor, peor, mayor, and menor, all of which we will explore below, and the rest are formed by adding más (or menos) before the adjective, as in el más feo ‘the ugliest’ or el más interesante ‘the most interesting’.

The superlative of Latin adjectives was formed by means of the suffix ‑issim‑, longissimus (fem. longissima, neut. longissimum), meaning ‘the longest’ (Sp. el más largo). These Latin superlative adjectives could also be used to express a high degree of the quality in question, in this case ‘very long’. Note that Spanish has borrowed this suffix from Latin in recent times, but only with the latter meaning. Thus, in Spanish larguísimo/a, derived from largo/a ‘long’, means ‘very, very long’, ‘extremely long’, but not ‘the longest’ like its ancestor could in Latin.[2]

The Latin suffix ‑issim‑ seems to derive from a combination of two Proto-Indo-European suffixes, the first one of which is *‑is‑, a (zero-grade) variant or allomorph of *‑yōs, the comparative (and intensive) suffix that we saw earlier was the source of Latin ‑ĭōr‑, and an absolutive suffix that has been reconstructed as *‑(t)m̥mo‑, which can be seen in the irregular superlatives optimus ‘best’/’very good’ and summus ‘highest, greatest’ (see below).

The following table gives the three forms of the adjective longus: the simple base form, the derived comparative and superlative forms. We are giving here the accusative masculine singular forms which show the inflections better, since the comparative nominative masculine/feminine form has no case/number inflection.

adjective	longum	long-um	‘long’
comparative	longior	long-iōr-em	‘longer’
superlative	longissimum	long-issim-um	‘longest’/’very long’

Latin irregular comparatives

The Spanish irregular comparatives, which all end in ‑or, are remnants of irregular Latin comparatives in ‑ior, in which the stem of the comparative was different from the stem of the regular adjective. There are four such irregular comparatives in Spanish—mayor, menor, peor, and mejor— the remnants from an even greater number of irregular comparatives (and superlatives) that Latin had. The ‑i‑ of the Latin ‑ĭōr‑ suffix either became a consonant, as in mayor, merged with a preceding consonant to produce a different sound, as in mejor, or was lost, as in peor.

The following are the main Latin irregular comparatives, all of which have different stems in the positive adjective and the comparative one (some, very different ones). They are given here in the nominative singular masculine/feminine form, with the neuter form in parenthesis. The first one is the comparative māior that we discussed earlier. Another one is mĕlĭor ‘better’, the source of Sp. mejor ‘better’, and one of the words that learners of Spanish tend to confuse with Sp. mayor, as well as with Eng. major and mayor. We will return to the descendants of these two words in the next section, to discuss them in greater detail.

• Lat. māior (neut. māius) ‘bigger’ (see previous section)

• Comparative of magnus ‘big’
• Source of Sp. mayor ‘bigger, etc.’
• Superlative: māxĭmus/a/um ‘biggest, greatest’ > Sp. máximo/a ‘maximum, highest’ ~ Eng. maximum

• Lat. mĭnor (neut. mĭnus) ‘less, smaller, inferior’

• Comparative of parvus/a/um ‘small, etc.’
• Source of Sp. menor ‘smaller, younger’ (= más pequeño, más joven) (cf. Eng. minor, minus)

• Lat. mĕlĭor ‘better’

• Comparative of bonus/a/um ‘good’

• Source of Sp. mejor ‘better’ = más bueno/a
• Superlative: optĭmus/a/um ‘best’ > Sp. óptimo/a ‘ideal, very best, optimum’

• Lat. pēior (neuter pēius; acc. pēiōrem) ‘worse’

• Comparative of malus/a/um ‘bad’
• Source of Sp. peor ‘worse’ = más malo/a
• Latin superlative: pessimus/a/um ‘worst’ > Sp. pésimo/a ‘very bad’ (= malísimo/a)

• Lat. plūs (only neuter) ‘more’ (plural masc./fem. plūrēs, neut. plūra)

• Comparative of multus/a/um ‘much, many (in the plural)’
• Old Latin plous, cognate with Ancient Greek πολύς (polús) ‘many’, source of the prefix Eng. poly‑ ~ Sp. poli‑, and with Old English feolo ‘much, many’
• Lat. plūs is the source of Eng. plus (Sp. más)
• Lat. multus/a/um is the source of Sp. mucho/a (not of Eng. much)
• Latin superlative: plūrĭmus/a/um ‘most, very much, very many’; in the plural: plūrimī
• Derived adjective: plūrālis ‘relating to more than one/many’ (plūr‑āl‑is), source of Eng. plural ~ Sp. plural

• Lat. prĭor (neut. prĭus) ‘former, prior, previous, etc.’

• Comparative of indeclinable prepositions prae (Old Lat. pri) and pro ‘before’ (regular stem prĭor‑)
• Superlative: prīmus/a/um ‘first’, source of Eng. prime
• Derived Latin adjective: prīmārius/a/um ‘first in rank, principal, eminent, distinguished’, source of Sp. primero/a ‘first’
• Medieval Latin derived word prioritas – prioritatis, source of Eng. priority ~ Sp. prioridad

• Lat. sŭpĕrĭor (neut. sŭpĕrĭus) ‘higher’

• Comparative of sŭpĕrus/a/um ‘situated above; upper, higher’; rarely used as an adjective, more commonly used as a noun in the plural: sŭpĕrī ‘the heavenly gods’
• Related to the preposition sŭper ‘over’, source of (patrimonial) Sp. sobre and (learned) Sp. super and Eng. super
• Source of Eng. superior ~ Sp. superior/(a)
• Latin superlative #1: summus/a/um ‘uppermost, highest, topmost’ > Sp. adj. sumo/a ‘great’, Eng. sum ~ Sp. suma ‘sum; addition’, Sp. sumar ‘to add’
• Latin superlative #2: supremus/a/um ‘highest, uppermost’> Sp. supremo/a ~ Eng. supreme

Other Latin comparatives were irregular because the positive adjective they are supposedly derived from does not exist any longer, though they supposedly did exist at one time, such as ōcior ‘swifter’ (superlative ocissimus). Some comparatives are irregular in the sense that the word they are derived from is not an adjective but rather an adverb or a preposition, e.g. prĭor (see above), intĕrĭor, and ultĕrĭor. Other comparatives are irregular in the sense that the positive form is primarily used as a noun, usually in the plural, rather than as an adjective, e.g. extĕrĭor (< exter(us), pl. exterī ‘foreigners’), infĕrĭor (< infĕrus, cognate with Eng. under, pl. īnferī ‘the gods below’), posterior (< posterus, pl. posterī ‘posterity’), and sŭpĕrĭor (see above). Let us look at extĕrĭor, for example:

• Lat. extĕrĭor (neut. extĕrĭus) ‘outward, outer, exterior’

• Comparative of exter(us)/a/um ‘on the outside, outward, of another country, family, etc., foreign, strange’
• Derived from the preposition ex‑ ‘out of’
• Source of the nouns Eng. exterior ~ Sp. exterior
• Superlative extrēmus/a/um ‘outmost’, source of Eng. extreme ~ Sp. extremo

Two interesting, somewhat irregular Latin comparatives are the following two antonyms, mostly because they have turned into such common words in English and/or Spanish:

• Lat. iūnior ‘younger’, comparative of the adjective iuvenis ‘young, youthful’: this comparative used to be regular, as it was iuvenior ‘younger’ in early Latin, but the middle syllable was lost; it has turned into Eng. junior; the positive adjective iuvenis has become the patrimonial adjective joven in Spanish
• Lat. sĕnĭor ‘older, elder’, comparative of the adjective senex ‘old, aged’, though senex could also be used as a noun meaning ‘old person, old man’; this word has turned into Sp. señor ‘sir, mister, lord’, as well as Eng. sir and senior (cf. Part II, Chapter 3); synonyms of the Latin adjective senex were senectus (< senex +‎ ‑tus) and vetus (gen. veteris); the diminutive of vetus was vetulus, source of patrimonial Sp. viejo; derived from Lat. vetus we get the learned words Eng. veteran and Sp. veterano

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[1] Note that there are some exceptions to this rule in set expressions, such as a most X Y, as in That is a most interesting question. This translates into Spanish as Esa es una cuestión/pregunta de lo más interesante, using the neuter article lo (cf. lo más interesante ‘the most interesting thing’).

Note that comparative adjectives can also refer to definite entities and thus be accompanied by the definite article, as in the phrase the more interesting books in the sentence The more interesting books in that pile are the ones on top. Note, though, that the meaning would not have been really different if the phrase the most interesting books had been used instead. Spanish only has one potion, however, namely los libros más interesantes, which could be translated as either the more interesting books or the most interesting books. The distinction could be made by using a relative clause, with or without the definite article before the comparative: los libros que son más interesantes vs. los libros que son los más interesantes.

[2] Note that Lat. lŏngus/a/um meant ‘long’. This word is cognate with Eng. long, a patrimonial (native) word derived from Proto-Germanic *langaz ‘long’. Both words go back to Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos ‘long’. Spanish had a patrimonial word luengo/a ‘long’ that came from Latin longus, but by the 16th century, this adjective had become archaic and it is now obsolete. It has been replaced with largo/a, an adjective that comes from Lat. largus/a/um that meant ‘generous, bountiful, lavish, plentiful, copious’ in classical Latin, and later added other meanings such as ‘lengthy’, ‘broad’, ‘wide’, ‘spacious, extensive’, and even ‘free, unconfined, unrestricted’ (cf. Eng. at large). English borrowed this Latin adjective as large [ˈlɑɹʤ], from Old French large ‘vast in extent, copious, etc.’.

The suffix ‑ísim-o/a is added the adjectival stem, after removal of the inflectional vowel, if there is one, e.g. guapa > guapísima, limpio > limpísimo, fácil > facilísimo. When added to adjectives ending in …ble, such as amable ‘kind, nice’, the two blend into the ending …bilísimo/a, as in amabilísimo ‘extremely kind’.

The suffix ‑ísim-o/a has a variant ‑císim-o/a which is used with adjectives ending in ‑or or ‑n, such as joven ‘young’, which changes to jovencísimo/a ‘very, very young’.

Speakers waver as to whether to regularize a diphthong in a regular adjective when the suffix ‑ísim‑ is added and thus the stress is moved away from the diphthong, e.g. fuerte > fuertísimo/fortísimo, bueno > buenísimo/?bonísimo, caliente > calentísimo/?calientísimo, etc. Note also that some types of adjectives do not admit the suffix ‑ísim‑, such as próximo ‘next’ (*proximísimo) , heroico ‘heroic’ (*heroicísimo).

Some descendants of Latin comparatives, part 1: Introduction: some often confused words

[This entry is an excerpt from Chapter 20, "Some descendants of Latin comparatives", of Part II of the open-source textbook Spanish-English Cognates: An Unconventional Introduction to Spanish Linguistics.]

[GO TO THE LISTING OF ALL THE PARTS OF THIS CHAPTER]

Introduction: some often confused words

The Spanish words mayor and mejor are often confused by English-speaking learners of Spanish. In particular, they are confused with the English words mayor and major. What’s the deal with these words that look so similar but are used so differently? Interestingly, they all go back to irregular Latin comparative adjectives. In this chapter we will look at these words and a few other ones that descend from irregular Latin comparative adjectives. We will start with a brief description of these words.

In English, mayor, pronounced [ˈmeɪ̯.əɹ] or [ˈmɛ.əɹ], refers to the ‘head of government of a city, town, borough, or municipal corporation’ (AHD). This meaning translates into Spanish as alcalde or by this word’s feminine wordform alcaldesa ‘mayoress’.

Eng. major [ˈmeɪ̯.ʤəɹ] is, first of all, an adjective meaning ‘important, serious, or significant’, as in a major accident. This adjective translates into Spanish as (muy) importante, muy serio, or principal, among others, e.g. a major accident ‘un accidente muy serio’, all major credit cards ‘todas las principales tarjetas de crédito’, major problems ‘problemas serios/importantes’.

Eng. major can also be a noun, one with several meanings. One is ‘a rank of officer in the US Army and the Air Force, above captain and below lieutenant colonel’, which in Spanish translates as comandante in Spain but also mayor in some Spanish-American countries. The noun major can also refer to ‘a major key, interval, or scale’ in music, which translates into Spanish as mayor. Another common meaning of the noun major is found in the context of American universities, where it means ‘a student’s principal subject or course’ and, by extension, ‘a student specializing in a specified subject’ (COED). From this last meaning, we have the derived verb to major. To the extent that this sense can be translated into Spanish, since the educational systems tend to be somewhat different, it is translated as especialidad, asignatura principal, or carrera (cf. Eng. career).

Sp. mayor [ma.ˈʝoɾ] is a cognate of both of these English words, mayor and major, as we shall see, since they also descend from the Latin comparative adjective māior ‘bigger, greater, superior’. The meaning of the Spanish word is quite close to that of the Latin adjective. It translates into English primarily as bigger, greater, or larger, when used as a comparative, and as biggest, greatest, or largest, when used as a superlative (with a definite article). This adjective also has some a special sense when used to refer to the relative age of people, in which case it translates as older or oldest, but also as mature, elderly, or grown-up, depending on the context.

As for Sp. mejor, this is also a comparative/superlative adjective, namely the comparative of the adjective bueno/a, and it thus translates as (comparative) better, as in Mi teléfono es mejor que el tuyo ‘My phone is better than yours’, or (superlative) best, as in Mi teléfono es el mejor ‘My phone is the best one’.

Latin māior and magnus

As we just saw, Eng. mayor and major and Sp. mayor all come from the Latin adjective māior ‘bigger, greater, superior’, the irregular comparative form of the adjective magnus ‘big, great, large, much, abundant’ (feminine magna, neuter magnum).

Latin māior, like the adjective it is associated with, come from Proto-Indo-European words that contained the Proto-Indo-European root meǵh₂- ‘great’. The word māior goes back to a (reconstructed) Proto-Italic word *magjōs, which descends from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs‎, formed from the root *meǵh₂- ‘great’ and the comparative suffix *‑yōs.

In Latin māior we can recognize the comparative suffix ‑ior ‘more’ which attached itself to adjective stems to produce comparative adjectives. It is equivalent to the comparative suffix ‑er in English, in words such as bigger, larger, sooner, or simpler. Actually, the two suffixes are cognates since they both derive from the same Proto-Indo-European suffix. This Eng. ‑er can be traced back to Proto-Germanic *‑ōzô that formed the comparative of certain types of adjectives, ultimately from PIE suffix *‑yos we just saw (the related suffix *‑ōz created adverbs, and *‑ōstaz, the source of Eng. ‑est, created superlatives). (Note that English has other suffixes ‑er too, from different sources, such as agentive ‑er, as in leader ‘one who leads’.)

The Latin comparative suffix ‑ior was lost in Spanish other than in a handful of irregular comparatives, namely the following: mayor, menor, mejor, and peor (see next section). In Latin, it was a regular suffix that could be regularly attached to adjectives, as we shall see in the next section. Regular comparatives in Spanish are formed with the adverb más ‘more’, which descends from Lat. magis, adverbial form of magnus ‘big, etc.’.

Lat. māior was pronounced [ˈmaj.jɔr], with a geminate (double) [j] sound. An earlier spelling of this word was maiior, which better reflects that pronunciation. This suggests that the Proto-Indo-European /ǵ/ at the end of this root assimilated its sound to that of the following /y/. In Medieval Latin, on the other hand, the word came to be spelled with a variant of the letter 〈I〉, one which did not exist in Classical Latin, namely 〈J〉, hence the spelling major (cf. Part I, Chapter 8, §8.3.2.3).

The connection between the comparative māior and the basic adjective magnus ‘big’ in Latin is not a regular one whose derivation can be stated in terms of adding a suffix to the adjective. Given the Proto-Indo-European root meǵh₂- and the adjective *méǵh₂s ‘great’ derived from it, we might have expected the Latin adjective to be *magus, cognate with Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas) ‘big, large’ (as in Eng. megalomaniac), for instance, or Sanskrit मह (mahá) ‘great, mighty, strong, abundant’ (as in maharajah, a word of Indian origin). The fact that the adjective was magnus in Latin instead of magus is due to the Proto-Indo-European source of this adjective being derived from the original adjective by means of a suffix. It has been reconstructed as *m̥ǵh₂nós.

Latin magnus was occasionally used as a name in Latin, so for example it was used as the cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known in English as Pompey [ˈpɒm.pi] (Sp. Pompeyo) or Pompey the Great. The ‘name’ became more common among royalty in the Middle Ages. It is mostly associated with the Frankish ruler Charlemagne, whose name is a French adaptation of the Latin name Carolus Magnus, lit. ‘Charles the Great’. Curiously, Magnus became popular as a first name in Scandinavia. Presumably Scandinavian Magnus came from Charlemagne’s name but it also seems that it may have been merged with an existing Germanic name Magni derived from the Old Norse element magn meaning ‘power, strength’ and ‘amount, quantity’, which is no doubt a descendant of Proto-Indo-European root *méǵh₂s ‘great’. (In Norse mythology, Magni is the name of a son of Thor and the giant Járnsaxa.) Seven kings of Norway were named Magnus between 1024 and 1347, as well as four kings of Sweden between 1106 and 1374, and one of Denmark in the 11th century. The name was also brought to the British Isles during the Middle Ages by Scandinavians.

Many English and Spanish words are descendants of words that contained in their origin the Proto-Indo-European root meǵh₂- ‘great’. They are almost always loanwords from the classical languages. Only one native English word descends from this root, namely much, which is unrelated to Sp. mucho, a false cognate. The main ancient words that are still found in one way or another in modern English or Spanish are the following:

• Latin: magnus < PIE *m̥ǵh₂-nós, derived from *méǵh₂s ‘great’ (synonym: grandis, antonym: parvus)
• Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas) ‘great, large, mighty’[1], a conflation of PIE *méǵh₂s ‘great’ with its derivative *meǵh₂los ‘great’ (see next item)
• Ancient Greek μεγᾰ́λος (megálos)  (synonym of μέγας mégas) < PIE *méǵh₂-lo-s[2]
• Sanskrit महस् (máhas) < PIE *méǵh₂-os ~ méǵh₂-es-
• Old English micel ‘big, large, great; much, a lot’ > Middle English muchel > English much

The Proto-Indo-European root is found, for instance, in the following cognates, all of which are loanwords in English, and most of which are loanwords in Spanish too, from either Latin or Greek (though some are patrimonial Spanish words):

• Eng. Charlemagne ~ Sp. Carlomagno < Lat. Carolus Magnus ‘Charles the Great’
• Eng. Magna Carta ~ Sp. magna carta < Lat. magna carta ‘great charter’;
• Sp. magno/a : a fancy and rare learned literary adjective that means ‘great in size or importance’, e.g. aula magna ‘main lecture hall’
• Eng. master - maestro - mister ~ Sp. maestro < Lat. măgĭster ‘teacher, leader, etc.’ (regular stem: magistr‑) < magis ‘more, great’ + the ancient suffix *‑tero‑ (antonym: minister)
• Sp. magisterio ‘teacher training; teaching profession’ < Lat. măgĭsterĭum ‘the office of a president, chief, etc.; teaching, instruction, advice’ (măgĭs‑ter‑ĭ‑um)
• Eng. magisterial ~ Sp. magistral < Late Latin măgĭsterĭālis (măgĭs‑ter‑ĭ‑āl‑is)
• Eng. magistrate ~ Sp. magistrado < Lat. măgistrātus ‘the office or rank of a magister, a magisterial office, civil office, magistracy’ < măgistr‑ + ‑āt‑us
• Eng. magnate ~ Sp. magnate < post-class. Lat. măgnātus (or magnas) ‘great man, important person’ < măgn‑ + ‑āt‑us
• Eng. magnitude ~ Sp. magnitud < Lat. magnĭtūdĭnem ‘greatness, size’ (nom. magnĭtūdo) < magn‑us +‎ -tūd‑ō (‑tūdĭn‑), a suffix that formed abstract nouns indicating a state or condition
• Eng. magnanimous ~ Sp. magnánimo/a < Lat. magnănĭmus ‘great-souled, brave, bold, noble; magnanimous; generous’ < magn‑us ‘big’ + animus ‘soul, spirit’, a calque of Ancient Greek μεγαλόψυχος (megalópsukhos) (cf. antonym: Eng. pusillanimous ~ Sp. pusilánime < pusillanimis ‘faint-hearted, timid, pusillanimous’ < pusillus ‘very small’ +‎ animus ‘spirit’, a calque of Ancient Greek ὀλιγόψυχος (oligópsukhos).
• Eng. magnanimity ~ Sp. magnanimidad < Lat. măgnănĭmĭtas ‘greatness of soul, magnanimity’, derived from the previous adjective by means of the suffix ‑ĭ‑tāt‑ that formed abstract nouns (măgn‑ănĭm‑ĭ‑tāt‑)
• Sp. magnifico/a < Lat. magnĭfĭcus/a ‘great, glorious, splendid, grand, etc.’
• Eng. magnificent (15th century) < Old French magnificent word put together from the Latin stem magnificent‑, present participle stem of the verb magnĭfĭcāre and stem of Lat. magnificent‑ior, comparative of magnĭfĭcus; or else an adaptation of magnificence (see below) and the adjectival suffix ‑ent
• Eng. magnificence ~ magnificencia < magnĭfĭcentĭa ‘greatness in action or in sentiment’, abstract noun derived from the adjective magnĭfĭcus (see above)
• Eng. magnify ~ Sp. magnificar < magnĭfĭcāre (the most common sense of Eng. magnify typically translates as aumentar or ampliar, not magnificar)
• Eng. majesty ~ Sp. majestad < Lat. māiestātem (nom. māiestās) ‘greatness, grandeur, dignity, majesty, elevation’ < formed from the ancestor of māior + the suffix ‑tāt‑
• Eng. majority < Middle French majorité < Medieval Latin māiōrĭtātem (nom. māiōrĭtās) ‘majority, superiority’, formed from māior + the suffix ‑tāt‑ (antonym: minority)
• Sp. mayoría (13th century): presumably derived in Spanish from mayor + ‑ía as a calque of French majorité (antonym: minoría)
• Eng. majuscule ~ Sp. mayúsculo/a < Lat. māiusculus (an early diminutive of māior) ‘somewhat greater, larger; considerable’
• Eng. omega ~ Sp. omega, name of the Greek letter Ω (lowercase ω) for the long vowel [ɔː] < Ancient Greek ὦ (ô) μέγα (mega) ‘large’
• Eng. maximum ~ Sp. máximo: < Lat. māxĭmus/a/um ‘large, great; aged, old; etc.; greatest, largest’, originally a superlative of magnus ‘great’ < Old Latin *magissimus/a/um (antonyms: Eng. minimum ~ Sp. mínimo/a < Lat. mĭnĭmus/a/um)
• Eng. maxim ~ Sp. máxima < post-classical Latin maxima, noun derived from the feminine adjective maxima (see previous)
• Eng. magnum ~ Sp. magnum: in some dialects of English, a double-size bottle of wine or liquor (1.5 liters); in the US, a trademark name for ‘a gun designed to fire cartridges that are more powerful than its calibre would suggest’ (COED) (some dialects of Spanish have borrowed this latter sense) < Lat. magnum, nominative singular neuter form of magnus
• Eng. maharajah ~ Sp. maharajá/marajá: ‘a king or prince in India ranking above a rajah, especially the sovereign of one of the former native states’ (AHD)
• Eng. maharishi, (Sp. guía espiritual hindú): ‘a Hindu teacher of mystical knowledge’ (WNTIU), ‘a great Hindu sage or spiritual leader’ (OAD)
• Eng. mahatma ~ Sp. mahatma  ‘ascetic person or spiritual leader in India’, as in mahatma Gandhi

Figure 130: Smith & Wesson Model 19-5 .357 Magnum, 4" Barrel[i]

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[i] Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S%26W_Model_19-5_.357_Magnum.JPG (2018.12.18)

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[1] Words have have been created in English and French out of the Greek pseudo-prefix or prefixoid mega‑. In French, this started in the second half of the 18th century and in English, in the second quarter of the 19th century. They are based on the model of many Ancient Greek words and this model has given us ‘many scientific and technical terms with the sense ‘very large’, ‘comparatively large’, or (esp. in Pathology) ‘abnormally large’, often having correlatives beginning micro‑, and sometimes also synonyms beginning macro-‘ (OED), e.g. megahertz (Sp. megahercio), megaphone (Sp. megáfono), megapixel (Sp. megapixel), megachurch, and megamerger.

[2] Many words have been created in English and French out of this Greek pseudo-prefix or prefixoid megal(o)‑. In English, this started in the last fourth of the 18th century and in French in the first third of the 19th century. They were based on the model of a few actual Greek loanwords borrowed in the 17th century, such as megalopsychia ‘magnanimigy’. Most are quite rare, however. The most common such neologisms are megalomania and megalomaniac (Sp. megalomanía and megalómano/a, respectively). Eng. megalomania ~ Sp. megalomania mean ‘an unnaturally strong wish for power and control, or the belief that you are very much more important and powerful than you really are’ (CALD).