The Spanish word 'allí' meaning 'there' comes from the Latin word 'illic' which meant 'in that place'. Over time, as Latin evolved into Spanish, 'illic' underwent phonetic changes, with the initial 'i' becoming 'a' and the final 'c' softening and eventually becoming 'í', giving us the modern Spanish word 'allí'.

Some related Spanish words include 'ahí' (there - closer to the listener) and 'aquí' (here). These words form part of Spanish's three-way system of spatial demonstratives, where 'aquí' indicates a location close to the speaker, 'ahí' indicates a location close to the listener, and 'allí' indicates a location far from both speaker and listener.

While there aren't direct English cognates of 'allí', English speakers might find it helpful to think of words like 'illicit' or 'illegal', which contain the Latin prefix 'il-', though these have a different etymological origin. The concept of 'there' in English actually comes from Germanic roots rather than Latin ones.