bastante

Forms

bastante m or f (masculine and feminine plural bastantes)^[1] Old Spanish and Aragonese texts also have bastant.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish bastar (“to be enough”) + -nte, the present participle of the verb used as an adjective.^[4][1][5][6] Corominas dates the adjective to about 1300 and the adverb only to about 1800.^[5][7][8]

bastar comes from a Vulgar Latin *bastāre, from Ancient Greek βαστάζω (bastázō, “to carry, bear a weight”).^[7][5][9][1] The same verb is Portuguese bastar, Catalan bastar, Occitan bastar and Italian bastare.^[7] Corominas notes that medieval Castilian, Catalan and Italian kept senses closer to the Greek, such as “to resist”, “to bear a weight” and “to last”, and he rejects a derivation from Arabic.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is the Cortes de León of 1208, which forbids letting anyone go sinon por bastante fiador “except on sufficient surety”.^[3][2] In the 13th and 14th centuries the adjective was often built with a or de and an infinitive, “able to, sufficient to”: a woman of rank who was idle era bastante de corronper vna çivdat “was enough to corrupt a city”, says a manuscript of the Castigos of 1293.^[3]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the word was only an adjective, “sufficient”; in the Middle Ages Spanish said asaz for “enough”, and later harto, lo bastante and bastantemente.^[7] Percyvall glossed it in 1591 as “sufficient”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades still had it only as an adjective.^[10][11] The adverb appears around 1800, and the Academy's 1884 dictionary gives it with two senses: “neither more nor less than needed” and “not a little”, as in es bastante rico.^[7][12]

The sense “quite a lot, fairly much”, now the commonest, grew from “sufficient”: Moliner describes it as a quantity that is more large than small.^[13][4] In 1855 Baralt condemned constructions such as bastante temerario para… as gallicisms copied from French assez.^[14] Judeo-Spanish uses the adverb for “very”, as in es bastante riko “he is very rich”.^[15]

Timeline

• 1208 – the Cortes de León speak of a bastante fiador “sufficient surety”.^[3][2]
• c. 1300 – Corominas's date for the adjective.^[5][7]
• 1550 – the first record from the Americas, in Honduras, in the legal phrase bastante poder “sufficient power”.^[16]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “sufficient”.^[10]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as what is competent and sufficient for something.^[11]
• c. 1800 – the first uses as an adverb.^[7][5]
• 1855 – Baralt rejects bastante + adjective + para as a gallicism.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the adverbial senses.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. enough, sufficient: No queda bastante leche para todos.^[4][1]
2. Quite a lot of; numerous, abundant: Vinieron bastantes vecinos.^[4][1]
3. Before comparatives, marking a large difference: bastantes más “a good many more”.^[4]
4. (law) Of a document, having the requirements needed to take legal effect.^[13]

Adverb

1. Enough, sufficiently: Ya has trabajado bastante.^[13][1]
2. quite, fairly, rather: La sala es bastante grande.^[1][12]
3. Quite a bit, to a considerable degree.^[1][17]

Word family

• bastantemente

Related words

• bastar
• abastar

Usage notes

The adjective agrees in number only (bastante, bastantes), not in gender.^[1] Lo bastante is used as an adverb, as in no es lo bastante alto.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. bastante
3. ^ 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. bastante
4. ^ a b c d e 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. bastante
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bastar
6. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 455
7. ^ 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, 537
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. bastante
9. ^ 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. bastar
10. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 77
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 569
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 141
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bastante
14. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 115
15. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. bastânte
16. ^ 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. bastante
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. bastante