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Ojalá
Words
Certain: The standard etymology in the RAE dictionary and in Corriente; no serious doubt.Food & garden · Everyday

espinaca

spinachhortaliza de hojas verdes y tiernas

Comes from Arabic

إِسْبَانَخ

isbānakh

“the spinach”«la espinaca»

Arabic today says

سَبَانِخ

sabānikh

And it still does

The article

It came in without the article.

Arabic itself had taken it from Persian.

The story

From Persian espenākh, via Arabic isbānakh. The final kh, which Spanish lacked, became c: espinaca.Del persa espenākh, a través del árabe isbānakh. La kh final, que el castellano no tenía, se quedó en c: espinaca.

In a sentence

Las espinacas tienen mucho hierro.

Spinach has a lot of iron.

السَّبَانِخُ غَنِيَّةٌ بِالحَدِيد.

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