contestar
ES [kontesˈtaɾ] · Spanish for “to answer, reply” · looks like English contest
Contestar looks like it should mean to contest - to fight, to compete, to argue a point. It means the calm opposite: to answer, to reply. Contestar el teléfono is just picking up the phone; contestar una pregunta is answering a question. While having an argument with a telephone or disputing a question is definitely possible, it is not the thing Spaniards express with this verb.
Both trace back to Latin contestari, “to call witnesses,” built on testis, “witness” - the same root sitting under testify, testimony and protest. In a Roman court you opened a case by calling your witnesses, and from there the word forked. English kept the fight in it: a contest, to contest a will. Spanish softened it to the everyday reply - contestar el teléfono is simply to answer the phone. One old courtroom verb, and one branch is still arguing while the other just picks up the call.