bonanza

Forms

bonanza f (plural bonanzas)^[1] Nebrija has abonança;^[2][3] O'Scanlan notes that abonanza was the old form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *bonacia (“calm at sea”), an alteration of Latin malacia (“dead calm”) shared by several Romance languages.^[4][5][1] The change came from bonus (“good”), because the Latin word was taken for a derivative of malus (“bad”).^[4][6][7] The REW calls it a euphemistic reshaping.^[8] The form Medieval Latin bonacia is recorded in the early 13th century.^[9][10] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 derived it simply from bueno, and Alemany in 1917 from the Latin adjective.^[11][12]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek μαλακία (malakía, “softness, slackness”), from μαλακός (malakós, “soft”).^[4][13][14] Wiktionary traces the Greek adjective to Proto-Indo-European *ml̥h₂ekos, from *melh₂- (“soft, weak”).^[15]

The same word is Italian bonaccia, Old Occitan bonansa, Catalan bonança, French bonace and Portuguese bonança; the REW takes the French word from Italian and the Portuguese from Spanish.^[8] The DHLF has the French word inherited from popular Latin.^[9] Coromines dates the Catalan word to the third quarter of the 13th century, in the chronicle of James I.^[16] Judeo-Spanish has Ladino bonaza.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Ochava esfera (1276) has quan faze bonança e non corre viento “when there is calm and no wind blows”.^[18] The CDH's earliest hits are in the Aragonese works of Juan Fernández de Heredia, 1376–1396, with bonança de mar “calm at sea”.^[19] The BDELC dates the word to the early 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “prosperity, peace of mind” is found in the 15th century: Villasandino asks the Virgin to turn his fortune en calma, mansa, con mucha bonança.^[18][19] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as calm at sea, the opposite of a storm, and figuratively as good fortune, quoting the Celestina: rara es la bonanza en el piélago “calm is rare on the open sea”.^[20] It also gave the phrase ir en bonanza, “to sail with a fair wind” and figuratively “to prosper”.^[20]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1534, in Peru.^[21] In the mines of New Spain it came to mean a rich body of ore: Salvá recorded the mining sense in 1846, and García Icazbalceta defined it as an unusually large mass of high-grade ore.^[22][23] English took bonanza from American Spanish in this sense in 1826, in reference to investment in Mexican mines, and later used it for any source of sudden wealth.^[24]

Timeline

• 1276 – Alfonso X's Ochava esfera has bonança “calm”.^[18]
• 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia writes bonança de mar.^[19]
• 15th century – the figurative sense “prosperity” in Villasandino.^[18]
• 1493 – the derivative abonanzar is first recorded.^[4]
• 1534 – first record in the Americas, in Peru.^[21]
• 1826 – English borrows the word from American Spanish.^[24]
• 1846 – Salvá records the mining sense.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) Calm, fair weather at sea; a lull: Al amanecer volvió la bonanza.^[5][1]
2. Prosperity (prosperidad), a period of economic growth: El turismo trajo bonanza al pueblo.^[5][1][25]
3. (mining) In the mines of the Americas, a rich deposit of ore.^[5][23]

Word family

• bonancible
• abonanzar

Related words

• bueno
• Latin malacia
• Italian bonaccia
• English bonanza

Usage notes

Ir en bonanza means “to sail with a gentle wind” and figuratively “to do well”.^[5][20] Mar bonanza “calm sea” is recorded from 1546.^[5][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. bonanza
3. ^ a b O'Scanlan, Timoteo (1831), Diccionario marítimo español, Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 155
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bonanza
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. bonanza
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 121
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. bonanza
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5254
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bonace
10. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. bonacia
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 148
12. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 264
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. malacia
14. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. μαλακός
15. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. μαλακός
16. ^ 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. 2, 82
17. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4048
18. ^ a b c d 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. 537
19. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. bonanza
20. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. bonanza
21. ^ 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. bonanza
22. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 163
23. ^ a b García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. bonanza
24. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. bonanza
25. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. bonanza