Very - multitudinally so

Latin for "lots" is multo, like "multitude." Shift a vowel for Italian "very":

Italian for "very" is molto (mole-toe). So if something is "multitudinally swell" in Italian, it's molto bene!

Spanish for "very" is muy (mwee). Run with the "mu - multi" connection. I'll put the whole story below for the curious. Anyway, if something is "multitudinally swell" in Spanish, it's ¡muy bien!

French for "very" is très (tray). Leave it to the French to throw sand in the gears again. This word is obviously unrelated. The straight scoop is below, but you're best off just learning it.

To learn our word for "very," I'd put it with the word for "well" and make our memory work a two-fer. Ready?

If things are "multitudinally swell" or simply going "very well," say Molto bene! ¡Muy bien! or Très bien!

The scoop of muy and très... if you really want to know...

We've already seen Latin multo and Italian molto. Here's the deal: Spanish really couldn't cope with a consonant right before the letter "t". We've already seen how "nocte" (night) became "noche" and mentioned that "octo" (eight) became "ocho". Guess what? Latin multo became... that's right... mucho. This is the Spanish for for "much" or "lots". However, a second, short form developed, meaning "very," and that is "muy".

The next question is, "Where on earth did the French get très?" This answer is for information only; save for the value of the story, it will offer little memory value. The Latin for "across" or "beyond" was trans. When you transfer your money, it is carried from one bank across to another. When you transmit a radio signal, you send it across the airwaves, beyond the radio tower. And when transubstantiation occurs in the Catholic Communion ritual, the substances of bread and wine go across and beyond the boundaries limiting ordinary matter to become the body and blood of Christ. No offense to either believers or non-believers in transubstantiation. I just want you to know that "trans," while in ordinary words like transmission, trans-national and transgressive (to step across [a line]), is no big deal, it really does go above and beyond. The French took it to the next level, first messing up the pronunciation (from trans to tras to très) and then stretching the meaning. If something is très bien, it is beyond merely bien, it is very well. For those taking a deep breath, don't say you weren't warned. And now, on to the next word.