The Spanish word 'velcro' comes from the trademark Velcro®, which was coined in French in 1951. It's a clever combination of two French words: 'velours' meaning 'velvet' and 'crochet' meaning 'hook'. The inventor took 'vel-' from 'velours' and 'cro-' from 'crochet' to create this portmanteau word that perfectly describes how the fastener works - with a soft, velvet-like surface that connects to a hooked surface.

While velcro itself is a relatively modern invention, there aren't many common Spanish words that share its etymology, since it's a manufactured trademark name rather than a word that evolved naturally in the language.

In English, we can recognize the word 'crochet' as being related to the '-cro' part of velcro, both coming from the French word 'crochet' meaning 'hook'. The English word 'velvet', while not directly related to velcro, comes from the same Latin root as the French 'velours' that gave us the 'vel-' in velcro. These connections help explain how velcro got its name - it's a combination of a velvet-like surface and tiny hooks!