The Spanish word 'regaliz' (meaning 'licorice') has an interesting journey from ancient Greek roots. It comes from the Latin word 'liquiritia', which itself was borrowed from Greek 'glykýrriza'. The Greek word was a compound of two parts: 'glykýs' meaning 'sweet' and 'rhiza' meaning 'root'. This makes perfect sense since licorice is literally a sweet root! The transformation from Greek 'glykýrriza' to Latin 'liquiritia' and finally to Spanish 'regaliz' shows how words can change significantly as they pass through different languages over time.

While 'regaliz' itself is a relatively common Spanish word for licorice, it doesn't have many common Spanish relatives due to its unique development from Greek through Latin. However, Spanish speakers might encounter it in compound words like 'regalizar' (to flavor with licorice) or in the variant form 'regoliz', though these are less common.

English speakers might find it helpful to know that the English word 'licorice' (or 'liquorice' in British spelling) comes from the same Greek source through Latin 'liquiritia'. While the English and Spanish words look quite different today, they're actually cousins! The English word maintained something closer to the 'liquid-' sound of the Latin, while Spanish developed the 'reg-' sound. Both words still refer to the same sweet root that the ancient Greeks named.