Where does “パラ” come from?

パラ (Japanese) comes from Japanese パラリンピック, from English paralympic, from English paraplegic, from English Pará, from Portuguese Pará, from Portuguese Pera, from Portuguese espera, from Portuguese esperar — to succeed, to prosper.

パラ (Japanese): para-; a benzene ring with two substituents in opposite positions

Definitions

  1. para-; a benzene ring with two substituents in opposite positions

Ancestry of “パラ”, step by step

パラ traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese パラリンピック

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japaneseパラリンピックthe Paralympics
2EnglishparalympicPertaining to the Paralympics and their...
3EnglishparaplegicOf, related to, or suffering from paraplegia; A...
4EnglishParáA former subunit of currency in several countries in the Ottoman/Turkish and Yugoslav regions
5PortugueseParáa state in the North Region of Brazil
6PortuguesePerapear
7Portugueseesperawait
8Portugueseesperarto wait; to hope; to expect; to anticipate
9Old Portugueseasperar
10Old Spanishesperarto wait for, await
11Latinspērōto hope, expect
12Latinspeshope; expectation, anticipation, apprehension
13Proto-Italicspēshope
14Proto-Indo-Europeanspéh₁sprosperity, success
15Proto-Indo-Europeanspeh₁-to succeed, to prosper

via English palla

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishpallaA traditional Tuscan ball game played in the...
2Italianpallaball; bullet, shot; testicles
3LatinpallaA rectangular piece of cloth worn by ladies in...
4Frankishball
5Northern Samibállutesticle, ball
6Northern Samiballátto become scared
7Proto-Samicpëlājëtēkto become scared
8Proto-Samicpëlëtēkto fear
9Proto-Uralicpele-to fear
Every word from Proto-Indo-European speh₁-