Sp. 'nada' & 'nadie' (nothing, nobody), are from L. for 'born' (cf Eng. 'natal'). 'Non res nata' & 'non homines nati' (no thing/person created) became set phrases to the point that the negatives were dropped but the adjectives retained the negative sense.
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At least they both start with n so they still look like negatives. (Also of note: both Spanish & Portuguese use nada, and both use alguién/alguém, but where Spanish went with nadie, Portuguese opted for the more logical ninguém.)
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Huh. Spanish also has ningún, and (I think?) uses it sometimes in place of nadie.
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