blanco

Forms

blanco (feminine blanca, masculine plural blancos, feminine plural blancas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Proto-Germanic *blank (“shining, white”), the Germanic adjective that survives, now rare, in German blank.^[2][3][4] Corominas takes the kept initial cluster /bl/ as a sign of a late entry, surely from France.^[2] Wiktionary takes it through early Medieval Latin blancus, which was borrowed from Frankish *blank and is found as an adjective from the 950s and as a byname in a Ravenna document of 893.^[1] In Catalan charters the Latin word is used from 951;^[5] Corominas finds that the Germanic word entered Castilian and Galician-Portuguese later than Catalan, and that the traces of Latin albus are stronger there.^[5] The older Spanish word was albo, the commonest in place names.^[2] Bénaben adds that candidus (“brilliant white”) survives in the learned cándido.^[6]

The same word is Portuguese branco, Galician branco, Asturian blancu, Catalan blanc, French blanc and Italian bianco.^[7][8][5][4] In Germanic its cognates are Old High German blanc (“shining, white”), Dutch blank (“white, transparent”) and Old Norse blakkr (“dun, pale”).^[4][9] Kroonen sees the Germanic adjective as an adjective made to a little-recorded verb *blinkaną (“to shine”), a nasalised variant of *blīkaną;^[4][9][1] Orel relates it to Ancient Greek φλέγω (phlégō, “to burn”) and Latin flagrō, and Wiktionary gives the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to shine”).^[4][9][1] The English word blank came from Romance.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) already uses it for “white”, comparing white garments and fair skin with the sun: „la cofia de rançal que blanca era commo el sol” “the cap of fine linen that was white as the sun”, and for the shine of armour: las lorigas tan blancas commo el sol.^[10][11][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose applies it to white wine and to the light-skinned peoples.^[13] As a noun it named silver coins: the blanco that Juan I had struck in 1387, and the blanca recorded from 1438, whence no tener blanca “to be penniless”.^[14][2][3] In the cant of the 17th century blanco meant “fool”.^[15] In the Quijote armas blancas are the blank shields of a new knight who has not yet won a device.^[16]

The noun “target” comes from the mark, usually white, at which one shot with a bow or gun; the Academy recorded it in 1817 with its figurative sense “aim, goal of one's desires”, and the blank space left in writing.^[17][18] The sense “cowardly” was added in 1884.^[19] In Venezuela blanco was the slaves' word of address to their masters, and in the Dominican Republic it means “courteous” or “generous”.^[3][20][21] In US Spanish blanco “blank space” follows English blank.^[22]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: blanca era commo el sol.^[10][2]
• 1156 – the feminine blanca in a charter of Huesca.^[23]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of white wine.^[13]
• 1387 – Juan I has the coin blanco struck.^[14]
• 1438 – blanca “silver coin”.^[2]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, en blanco, in Santo Domingo.^[24]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin albus.^[25]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's cant vocabulary: blanco “fool”.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy records the senses “target” and “blank space”.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “cowardly” and derives the word from Old High German blanch.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. white: of the colour of snow or milk, the colour of sunlight not broken into the spectrum.^[3][1]
2. Lighter in colour than others of its kind: pan blanco.^[3]
3. Of wine or the grape it is made from: white, golden in colour as opposed to red.^[3]
4. Of a person or race: light-skinned; also as a noun, a white person.^[3][1]
5. pale, usually from a strong emotion or a fright: Se quedó blanco al ver la factura.^[3]
6. (colloquial) cowardly; also as a noun, a coward.^[3][26]
7. (Dominican Republic) Courteous, well-mannered.^[3][21]
8. (Venezuela, historical) A form of address used by slaves and servants to their masters.^[3]
9. (old cant) Foolish; of a gambler, so naive that he is easily cheated.^[3][15]

Noun

1. White, the colour.^[3][1]
2. A target: an object set at a distance to practise shooting at.^[3][1]
3. A person or thing at which shots or some action are aimed: Era el blanco de todas las bromas.^[3]
4. A blank, a gap in a series, especially an unwritten space in a text.^[26][17]
5. A white patch on the head or legs of a horse.^[26]

Word family

• blancura
• blancuzco
• blanquear
• blanquecer
• blanquizco
• ajoblanco
• blanquecino
• emblanquecer
• blanca
• blanquillo

Related words

• albo
• cándido
• Medieval Latin blancus
• Portuguese branco
• French blanc
• English blank

Usage notes

Common phrases are en blanco “blank, unwritten” and “with one's mind blank” (quedarse en blanco), dar en el blanco “to hit the mark”, en blanco y negro “in black and white” and sin blanca “penniless”.^[3] Arma blanca is a weapon with a blade.^[3][27]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 598
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. blanco
4. ^ a b c d e f Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 67
5. ^ a b c Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 823
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. blanco
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 575
8. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. blancu
9. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 47
10. ^ 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. 527
11. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 99
12. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 78
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. blanco
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 614
15. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 164
16. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 186
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 131
18. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 250
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 153
20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. blanco
21. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. blanco
22. ^ Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 44
23. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. blanco
24. ^ 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. blanco
25. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 303
26. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. blanco
27. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. blanco