Spanish

1. a person from Spain or a person whose ethnic composition is primarily derived of ancestors from Spain. (For this reason people from Latin America cannot necessarily be considered Spainsh see Note) 2. a latin-based language used mostly in Spain and many countries in Latin America. Spanish is also very widely spoken in parts of the Pacific (i.e. the Philippines) , and Africa (i.e. Morocco). Countries in Latin America like Mexico and Puerto Rico speak highly colloquialized variations of Spanish infused over generations with local native and colonial era slave dialects, these variations however are still considered Spanish; for example, it would be inapproprite to suggest that someone 'speaks Mexican.' 3. of or related to Spain. *Note: This does not apply to people from Latin America, Despite popular/ignorant belief: Latin Americans are not 'Spanish' in this sense, even though many speak Spanish. Latin America consists of many ethnicities, including European (Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, Deutsch mostly), African, Amerindian (or 'Natives of the Americas' for the less educated), Arab and even Asian (how did the Japenese end up in Chile anyway?) While Spanish is the language spoken in most Latin American countries, the term Latin used for Latinos stems from the fact that many other latin based languages are spoken in this region of the world i.e. Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian. For the same reason European countries who speak Latin languages can technically be considered Latin also, however Latin is more encompassing than Latino which refers directly to people from Latin America. Calling someone Spanish who is from Latin America without further information of their ancestory is sign of disintelligence.