What Do the Vena Cava and Spanish Cava Have in Common?
CAVA, is Spain’s famous sparkling wine.
If you know a little medical terminology, the name might make you pause. The word cava also appears in vena cava, the large vein that carries blood back to the heart.
The superior vena cava returns blood from the upper body, while the inferior vena cava carries blood from the lower body.
Wine and a major blood vessel may seem completely unrelated. But trace the words back, and an interesting connection appears.
The Latin word cavus means “hollow” or “having an internal space.”
It is also related to English words such as cave and cavity.
The term vena cava comes from this same Latin root. Although “hollow” may suggest something completely empty, here it is better understood as something with a space inside—like a large hollow tube through which blood flows.
Meanwhile, in Spanish, cava can refer to a cellar or underground space used for storing wine. This, too, carries the idea of a hollow or enclosed space. The sparkling wine CAVA took its name from the cellars where the wine was traditionally aged.
So we have:
vena cava → a major vein
cave → an underground hollow
cavity → a hollow space
CAVA → Spanish sparkling wine
At first glance, these words seem to have little in common. But trace their origins, and they all lead back to the idea of a hollow or internal space.
You may start out learning a medical term—and somehow end up talking about Spanish wine.
Language has a curious way of connecting seemingly unrelated worlds.
