blando

Forms

blando (feminine blanda, masculine plural blandos, feminine plural blandas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish blando, inherited from Latin blandus (“caressing, flattering, charming”).^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese brando, Galician brando, Asturian blandiu, Catalan bla, Old Occitan blan, Old French blant and Romanian blând (“tame, gentle”).^[5][6][7] The material sense “yielding to the touch, not hard” was foreign to Latin and grew in Romance, but it is old: Corominas finds it in Spanish as early as the Buenos proverbios.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades already noted that Spanish took the word from Latin with a different meaning.^[8]

The origin of the Latin adjective is uncertain: de Vaan rejects the old link with Latin mollis (“soft”) as phonetically impossible, and reports Schrijver's preform *mlh₂-d-no-, which would connect Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft”) and Old Irish mláith (“soft”).^[9] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *mland-, a nasalised variant of *meld-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the word in the mid-13th century, in the Buenos proverbios, the Libro de Alexandre and the Calila.^[2][3] Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254) describe a thief de blandas palabras “of soft words”, and the Escorial Gospel of Saint Matthew (c. 1254–1270) has los que uisten las blandas cosas “those who wear soft clothing”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonsine prose uses blando for what is tender to the touch, for gentle or kindly words, for a mild-mannered person (a man who seemed muy blando & muy manso but was a wolf at heart) and as an adverb, of the Nile flowing gently.^[10] In the 15th century it is also said of a mellow wine.^[11] Nebrija glosses blando al sentido de tocar by Latin lenis.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it first as the opposite of hard, then figuratively as flattering or agreeable, and records the slang noun blanda “bed”.^[8] The Academy's edition of 1770 adds the sense “weak, soft, unfit for work”.^[13] Later dictionaries record “cowardly” as a slang sense and the musical sense “flat”.^[14][4] Cuervo documents blando “flattering, seductive” in Quevedo and Fray Luis de León.^[15] In Argentina blando is a boneless cut of beef from the inner thigh.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Corominas's first records, in the Buenos proverbios, the Alexandre and the Calila.^[2][3]
• 1251 – the derivative ablandar is first recorded.^[3]
• 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas speak of blandas palabras.^[10]
• c. 1400 – blandura is first recorded.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary renders it by lenis.^[11][12]
• 1563 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán: medicinas blandas.^[17]
• 1588 – blandujo is first recorded.^[3]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the slang blanda “bed”.^[8]
• 1770 – the Academy adds the sense “weak, unfit for work”.^[13]
• 1874 – blandengue “weak-willed man” is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. soft: yielding easily to pressure or touch: un colchón demasiado blando.^[4][1]
2. Gentle, mild, kindly.^[4]
3. Of a person: faint-hearted, weak-willed, cowardly.^[4][1]
4. Lacking severity, too indulgent: Es muy blanda con sus alumnos.^[18]
5. (music) Of a note: flat (bemolado).^[4][1]

Adverb

1. Softly, gently.^[4][8]

Word family

• blandura
• blandujo
• ablandar
• reblandecer
• blandengue
• blandear
• emblandecer

Related words

• blandicia
• Latin blandus
• Portuguese brando

Usage notes

In old slang the feminine blanda was a noun meaning “bed”.^[4][8] In bullfighting tomar los blandos means to wound the bull without striking bone.^[4] In Argentina blando is also a noun, a boneless cut of beef.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 599
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. blando
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. blando
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. blandus
7. ^ 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, 819
8. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 617
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c 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. blando
11. ^ 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. 528
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 304
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 491
14. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 375
15. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 886
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. blando
17. ^ 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. blando
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. blando