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alegre

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word alegre

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid, in a 14th-century copy More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin *alicer
Ultimate origin
Latin alacer

Pronunciation

  • /aˈleɡɾe/, [aˈle.ɣ̞ɾe][1]

Forms

alegre m or f (masculine and feminine plural alegres)[1] Old Spanish also wrote allegre; the Poema de Fernán González (c. 1250) has alegrue and alegrrue.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *alĭcer, with the genitive *alĕcris, a variant of Latin alăcer (“lively, brisk”).[4][5][6] Isidore of Seville already used the Latin adjective in the sense “glad”.[4]

The other Romance forms, Catalan alegre, Occitan alègre and Old French haliegre, go back to an accusative *alĕcrem, which in Castilian should have given a form with the diphthong ⟨ie⟩.[4] Meyer-Lübke therefore took the Castilian and Portuguese words as borrowed from Catalan or Occitan.[7][4] Corominas doubts this, given how basic the notion is, how old the word is in Spanish and the lack of a more popular rival, and suggests a variant *alicrem modelled on the nominative.[4] He concedes, however, that Portuguese alegre, with its /l/ kept, must come from the Occitan of the troubadours, and that this strongly suggests the Castilian word could have come from there too.[4] Nascentes derives the Portuguese word from troubadour Occitan, while Machado finds that unlikely because of the place name ⟨Monte Alegre⟩ in 1237.[8][9]

The same Latin word is French allègre and Italian allegro, which was later borrowed into Spanish as the musical term alegro.[7][5] The Latin adjective may be built on the root of ambulō (“to walk about”), Proto-Indo-European *h₂elh₂- (“to wander, roam”), with a rare suffix; de Vaan finds the link possible but not compelling.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has the sense “glad”: ¡Dios, qué alegre fue el abbat don Sancho! “God, how glad the abbot Don Sancho was!”.[11][12][2] A trace of the Latin sense “active, brisk” survives in the formula sano e alegre of donations and wills of 1217 and 1228.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's Lapidario a person may be alegre by nature, sin sanna “without anger”, and in his histories things that cause joy are alegre.[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) applied it to pleasant inanimate things, such as cielo alegre and campo alegre, and recorded alegre de cascos for someone tipsy or rash.[14] The Academy's 1770 edition added bright colours, favourable news and lively conversation, and gave the obsolete sense “gallant, brave”.[15] The sense “merry with drink” was given a definition of its own in 1817.[16] The DLE now also has the colloquial senses “loose in sexual morals” and “reckless”.[6]

Alegre was a byname in Navarrese documents of 1212 and 1230, and Basque alegere was borrowed from it.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.[11][12]
  • c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy) has sano e alegre.[12]
  • 1212 – Alegre as a byname in a Navarrese document.[4]
  • c. 1230–1260 – the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient, the first record without a later copy.[12]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario.[13]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin hilaris and laetus.[17]
  • 1532 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico: la tierra es alegre y abundosa.[18]
  • 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records alegre de cascos.[14]
  • 1770 – the Academy adds the sense of bright colours.[15]
  • 1883 – alegro, the musical term, is borrowed from Italian.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Full of joy; glad, happy: Hoy estoy muy alegre.[6][1]
  2. cheerful by nature: Es una chica alegre.[6][1]
  3. Showing joy or liveliness: unos ojos alegres.[6]
  4. Causing joy: una alegre sorpresa.[6]
  5. Spent or done with joy: una tarde alegre.[6]
  6. Bright and pleasant-looking, able to cheer: un patio alegre.[6]
  7. (of a colour) Bright, vivid.[6]
  8. Having bright colours.[6]
  9. (colloquial) tipsy, merry with drink.[6][1]
  10. (colloquial) Free or licentious in sexual morals.[6]
  11. (colloquial) Reckless, taking risks without thinking: Es muy alegre con el dinero.[6]

Word family

  • alegrar
  • alegría
  • alegrón
  • alegremente
  • alegro
  • alacridad
  • Latin alacer
  • Italian allegro

Usage notes

With estar it describes a passing state of joy, with ser a cheerful character.[6] The DLE also has the phrase cuentas alegres, over-optimistic calculations.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. alegre
  3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. alegre
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 141
  5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alegre
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. alegre
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 307
  8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alegre
  9. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 182
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 225
  12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. alegre
  13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. alegre
  14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 190
  15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 156
  16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 42
  17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 289
  18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. alegre

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Alegre.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/alegre. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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