cognate
n.a word in one language that looks and feels like a word in another language because they share the same ancestor. For example, 'night' in English and 'nuit' in French come from the same ancient root.
n.a word that is related to another word in a different language through a common etymological origin. Derived from the Latin term for 'born together', the term implies a shared genetic history between lexical items.
“The English word 'father' and the German word 'Vater' are cognates.”
“Language learners often find cognates helpful when building vocabulary, though they must watch out for 'false friends' that look similar but mean different things.”
“Linguistic reconstruction relies on identifying cognates across multiple languages to determine the phonological characteristics and geographical origins of an extinct proto-language.”
Often used with the preposition 'of' or 'with' when establishing the relationship between two specific words.
From Latin cognātus “related by blood”, itself compounded from co- “together” and gnātus “born”; Portuguese retained the same word as cognato and Spanish as cognado, while English accepted the Latin form wholesale and later produced the doublets connate and cognatus.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.