bondad

Forms

bondad f (plural bondades)^[1] Old Spanish wrote bondat beside bondad and vondat.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish bondat, inherited from Latin bonitās (“goodness”).^[4][1][5] The Latin noun is formed bonus (“good”) + -tās.^[6][1] The DCECH treats the word under bueno and dates it from Berceo.^[7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese bondade, Asturian bondá, Catalan bondat, Occitan bontat, French bonté, Italian bontà and Romanian bunătate.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in the Navarrese Liber Regum (about 1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century), where the nobles raise Sancho Abarca to the throne por la bondat e por l'esfuerço que uedieron en el “for the goodness and the valour they saw in him”.^[11] The DEMel lists an earlier bondat in the Navarrese chronicles, which it dates 1154–1194.^[3] Here, as in Berceo, it is the moral goodness of a person.^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used bondat for a person's virtue, for the good quality of a thing, for a favour or mercy, for skill, and in the plural for good works.^[2] In Alfonso X's prose it is the quality of a stone, the inclination to do good, and virtue.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it first as the perfection proper to a thing, then as the quality that makes things fit for use, as the goodness of a horse or a cloth, and by antonomasia as the mercy of God.^[13] The Academy's 1770 edition added the sense “gentleness, mildness of temper”.^[14] The polite formula tener la bondad de “to be so kind as to” was in vogue in the 19th century, when Baralt, in his dictionary of Gallicisms, complained that it was in fashion.^[15] The DLE and Moliner give it as a courtesy formula.^[4][16]

Timeline

• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum uses bondat for a king's goodness.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – the date of first record in the BDELC, from Berceo.^[5][7]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the quality of a stone.^[12]
• 1490 – first record of bondadoso.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin bonitas and probitas as its equivalents.^[17]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, of the quality of a fruit.^[18]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the perfection proper to a thing.^[13]
• 1770 – the Academy adds the sense “mildness of temper”.^[14]
• 1855 – Baralt criticises the fashionable tener la bondad de.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. goodness: the quality of being good: Nadie discute la bondad de este vino.^[4][1]
2. A natural inclination to do good; kindness.^[4]
3. (usually plural) A kind act, a favour: Nunca olvidaré sus bondades.^[4][1]
4. Gentleness, mildness of temper.^[4][14]
5. Kindness shown to another person, used in polite formulas: ¿Tendría la bondad de esperar un momento?^[4][16]

Word family

• bondadoso

Related words

• bueno
• maldad
• Latin bonitās

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 81
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. bondad
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. bondad
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bueno
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. bonitās
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 688
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1206
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 81
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. bondá
11. ^ 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. bondad
12. ^ 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. bondad
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 645
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 509
15. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 126
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bondad
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 304
18. ^ 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. bondad