カタカナ

 When thinking of what kinds of katakana words to research and find where they come from, I thought to see if there were any words borrowed from Spanish and learn the history of why! I found that there aren't that many borrowed words in Japanese from Spanish because the Spanish presence in Japan was very brief, and they were expelled by the shogunate at the time. Because of this, Japanese has more loanwords from Portuguese, especially since Portuguese Jesuit priests and traders entered Japan to introduce Western ideas and developments. 

This is an example chart of some of the words from Portuguese that are now borrowed by Japanese. It is very interesting to see how many of those have direct ties to religion in this chart. 

These loanwords reflect the early trade connections established by Portugal and Japan in the 15th and 16th centuries, where food, religion, and other items were exchanged between the two cultures. Many words that were thought to be Spanish entered through the Portuguese, especially when some words sound identical but have no historical connection with each other. Some other examples I found that were very interesting include

パン (Pan): From paeo (Bread), this word is also shared with Spanish, pan!

ボタン (Botan): From botaeo (Button)

コップ (Koppu): From copo (Drinking glass/cup)