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European bridge: one should start leading hearts (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

spanish

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'european' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'bridge one should start leading hearts' is the wordplay.
'bridge' becomes 'span' (synonyms).
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'start' says to take the initial letters.
'leading' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'should' is 's'.
The first letter of 'hearts' is 'h'.
'span'+'i'+'s'+'h'='SPANISH'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for spanish that I've seen before include "Institution set up in 1478 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to safeguard Catholic orthodoxy" , "Nationality of citizen of Malaga" , "His pans are from Barcelona, say" , "Language of much of Central America" , "Language of Madrid" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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