The Spanish verb 'amanecer' (to dawn) comes from the Late Latin word 'admanescere' meaning 'to begin to dawn'. This Latin word was formed by combining three elements: the prefix 'ad-' meaning 'towards', the noun 'mane' meaning 'morning', and the suffix '-escere' which was used to create verbs that describe the beginning of an action or process (called an inchoative suffix).

The combination literally meant 'to move towards morning' or 'to begin to become morning', which evolved into the modern Spanish meaning of 'to dawn'. Over time, the 'd' in 'ad-' was lost, giving us the modern form 'amanecer'.

A related Spanish word is 'mañana' (morning, tomorrow), which comes from the same Latin root 'mane' meaning 'morning'. While 'amanecer' describes the process of dawn breaking, 'mañana' refers to the morning time itself or the next day.

While English doesn't have many common words directly related to the Latin 'mane' (morning), we do use some borrowed phrases like 'ante meridiem' (a.m.) where 'ante' means 'before' and 'meridiem' means 'midday'. The concept of measuring time relative to morning and midday shows a parallel development in both languages.