Regarding today's word - "cay", from the Spanish "cayo", I have an anecdote I've always found amusing and typical of inter-language phonetic translations.

Growing up in Cuba in the 1950s, Key West was always referred to as "Cayo Hueso" - literally - "Key Bone". (Cayo, by the way, is also the common word in Cuba for a "corn" as in a toe corn.) When I moved to the U.S. and learned English, I was baffled as to why Key West, which would be translated as "Cayo Oeste", was called "key bone". It took a while, but I finally realized that Cayo "Hueso" was the way the Spanish ear hears "West." As far as I know, to this day, Key West is referred to as Cayo Hueso in Spanish. I guess the Spaniards never gave that key a name. Very similar to the Puerto Rican word "safacón" for garbage can which was originally how the Puerto Ricans read the stamped name on the side of the American trash cans - Safety Can. But that's another story.

Ozzie Alfonso