The deep etymology of the word duende can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European root “dom”. So, duende is a cognate of Spanish words like domicilio or Don (or domain and domestic in English) Duende comes, then, from house or home.The more recent root is said to come from an old Spanish contraction of “dueño de la casa"—"duen de casa”. Evidently, the Swedes have a word that is closely related: tomte.