bienvenido

Forms

bienvenido (feminine bienvenida, masculine plural bienvenidos, feminine plural bienvenidas)^[1] Medieval texts write it as two words, bien venido.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish bien + venido, from the adverb “well” and the past participle of venir.^[4][5][6] Corominas lists it among the compounds of the verb.^[7]

Wiktionary instead derives it through Old Spanish bien venido from Vulgar Latin *bene venītus, and considers the Latin phrase a calque of Frankish *willikumō, whose first element was taken for “well” rather than “will, desire”.^[1] The Germanic word goes back to Proto-Germanic *wiljakwemô (“a welcome guest”), from the verbs “to want” and “to come”, and also gave the English word welcome.^[1]

Related forms are Portuguese bem-vindo, Galician benvido and Asturian bienveníu.^[1][8][9] Echegaray also compared Catalan benvingut, French bienvenu and Italian benvenuto.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first primary record is bien venidos in the Gran conquista de Ultramar (c. 1295).^[2] Alfonso X's Estoria de España tells how the Moors came to a man on the walls and told him que fuesse bien venido “that he was welcome”.^[3] Corominas and the Breve diccionario date the word to the 15th century.^[7][11]

Semantic evolution

From the start it was used with the verb ser to greet a newcomer: a 14th-century romance of chivalry has vos seades el bien venido “may you be welcome”.^[5] In the Americas, from 1568, dar el bienvenido meant “to welcome someone officially”, with the word used as a masculine noun.^[12] The DLE marks this noun as little used and gives the feminine bienvenida for the reception, first recorded in the mid-16th century.^[4][7][11]

Moliner adds the exclamation ¡bienvenido!, a polite greeting to someone who has just arrived, and the sense “arriving at the right moment”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1236–1246 – DEMel lists a record in Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen, known only from a secondary source.^[2]
• c. 1295 – the Gran conquista de Ultramar has bien venidos.^[2]
• 14th century – romances of chivalry use ser bien venido as a greeting.^[5]
• 15th century – Corominas's date for the word.^[7][11]
• 16th century, middle – the noun bienvenida appears.^[7][11]
• 1568 – first record in the Americas, in Guatemala: darle el bienvenido.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. welcome: received with pleasure or joy, or arriving at the right moment: Cualquier ayuda será bienvenida.^[4][13][1]

Interjection

1. ¡Bienvenido! “welcome!”: a polite greeting to someone who has just arrived, agreeing with that person in gender and number.^[13][1]

Noun

1. (rare) A polite reception, now bienvenida.^[4][12]

Word family

• bienvenida

Related words

• venir
• bien
• Portuguese bem-vindo
• English welcome

Usage notes

Bienvenido is also a man's given name.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. bienvenido
3. ^ 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. bienvenido
4. ^ a b c d 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. bienvenido
5. ^ a b c 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. 524
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. bienvenido
7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 770
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bem-vindo
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. bienveníu
10. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 679
11. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. venir
12. ^ a b c 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. bienvenido
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bienvenido