bravo

Forms

bravo (feminine brava, masculine plural bravos, feminine plural bravas, superlative bravísimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish bravo, an adjective shared with Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan and Italian whose origin is uncertain;^[2][3] Corominas considers it most probably inherited from Latin barbărus (“foreign; wild, savage”).^[2][3] The DLE gives the same etymon, as uncertain.^[4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign”).^[5][1]

On this view the Latin word lost its unstressed vowel, the first ⟨r⟩ by dissimilation and moved the second, giving *barbru, *babru and *brabu.^[3][6] Corominas compares the same shift in breba and brebaje.^[2] Nocentini prefers a direct step to *barbu, followed by the metathesis.^[7] For the sense, Cornu pointed to Portuguese charters of 870–1043 in which the word describes uncultivated land, and Corominas adds classical uses for wild wasps and untended groves.^[2]

Diez and Menéndez Pidal derived the word from prāvus (“crooked; bad”), because 11th-century documents use it of untamed animals and uncultivated land, and the Primera Crónica General renders this word of its Latin source with the Spanish one.^[2][8] The DRAE of 2001 and Moliner follow this etymology.^[9][10] Meyer-Lübke objected that one of the two Latin renderings must be a scribe's disguise of the Romance word, and that the rendering with the older word, further from the Romance form, was the less likely to be invented;^[2] Corominas adds that the other etymon would need a voicing of /pr-/ to /br-/ found nowhere else.^[2] The Latinised form brabidus of a 1061 document owes its shape to rabidus and to its opposite domitus.^[2] Wiktionary takes Vulgar Latin *bravus to be a blend of the two Latin words.^[1]

The same word is Portuguese bravo, Galician bravo, Asturian bravu, Catalan brau and Occitan brau, and Italian has it too, with dissimilation also brado, as in bue brado (“wild ox”).^[11][2] From Italian, where it had come to mean “brave, able”, it passed into French brave.^[11][7] The interjection is borrowed from Italian bravo, first used by Cadalso (died 1782); in Italian it is the adjective, applied to a man in applause.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a document from León of 1030, published by Menéndez Pidal.^[2][3] A charter of 1048 from San Vicente de Oviedo has brauas.^[12] In early use it means violent and cruel of people, wild of animals, uncultivated of land and stormy of the weather.^[2] Berceo uses it of a fierce person and a terrible thing, and Juan Ruiz of an untamed beast.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The sense “brave” appears only in the Golden Age; it is not yet in Nebrija, and in the 19th century it was overused under French influence, as Baralt complained.^[2] From it the word took on all kinds of favourable senses (brava música “splendid music”), a history like that of bizarro.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 calls a bull bravo when it charges people and horses, a man when he is valiant, angry or finely dressed, and buildings when they are sumptuous;^[14] brava cosa is a foolish thing.^[14] He derived the word from Greek brabeion “prize”, which Autoridades rejected because bravo was a very old Spanish word.^[14][15]

The sense “angry” is still firm in Latin America, and Portuguese had it already in the poems of King Denis.^[2] It is current from the United States to Paraguay, where Spain hardly uses it;^[16][17][18] Ortiz called it an archaism that should go back into the dictionary.^[16][17][18] In Mexico and Central America bravo is also hot, of chili and food, and in several countries strong, of the sun.^[19][16] In thieves' slang bravo was the judge.^[20][4] Spain has toro bravo “fighting bull” and patatas bravas, potatoes in a hot sauce.^[10][1]

Timeline

• 943 – the Latinised brabum for untilled land in a charter quoted by Cejador.^[21]
• 1030 – the first record, in a document from León.^[2][3]
• 1048 – brauas in a charter of San Vicente de Oviedo.^[12]
• 1251 – the derivatives braveza and embravecer in the Calila.^[2][3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España calls the Helvetii yent muy fuert e muy braua.^[22]
• 1515 – the first record in the Americas, indios bravos in Tierra Firme.^[23]
• 1548 – bravata is taken from Italian.^[2][3]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “wild, fierce, cruel”.^[24]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's glossary of thieves' slang gives bravo “judge”.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from Greek.^[14]
• before 1782 – Cadalso uses the interjection ¡bravo!.^[2]
• 1836 – the derivative bravucón.^[3]
• 1846 – Salvá records ¡bravo! as an interjection of approval.^[25]
• 1884 – the Academy derives the word from Italian.^[26]
• 2001 – the DRAE derives it from Latin pravus.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. brave, valiant.^[4][1]
2. Good, excellent.^[4][1]
3. Of an animal: fierce, wild: un toro bravo.^[4][10]
4. Of the sea or a river: rough, stormy.^[4][1]
5. Of land: rough, uncultivated, rugged.^[4]
6. angry, cross, violent, especially in Latin America: Mi padre se puso muy bravo conmigo.^[4][16][1]
7. (colloquial) Bad-tempered.^[4]
8. (colloquial) Sumptuous, magnificent.^[4]
9. (colloquial, dated) swaggering, bullying.^[4]
10. (Mexico, Central America) Of food: very hot, spicy.^[16][19]

Noun

1. (thieves' slang) A judge.^[4][20]

Interjection

1. bravo!, well done!: used to applaud, often repeated.^[4][1]

Word family

• bravamente
• bravear
• braveza
• bravío
• bravucón
• bravura
• desbravar
• embravecer
• a la brava
• toro bravo
• patatas bravas

Related words

• bárbaro
• bravata
• Latin barbarus
• Portuguese bravo

Usage notes

A la brava or por las bravas means “by force, without ceremony”.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 655
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bravo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. bravo
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 86
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. bravo
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. bravo
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pravus
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. bravo
10. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bravo
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. barbarus
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. bravo
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 82
14. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 339
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 673
16. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. bravo
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. bravo
18. ^ a b Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 94
19. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 232
20. ^ 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
21. ^ 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. 200
22. ^ 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. bravo
23. ^ 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. bravo
24. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 82
25. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 169
26. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 166