bueno

Forms

bueno (masculine singular before a noun buen, feminine buena, masculine plural buenos, feminine plural buenas, comparative mejor or más bueno, superlative buenísimo or (dated, formal) bonísimo)^[1] Before a masculine singular noun it is shortened to buen (buen tiempo), as already in Old Spanish.^[1][2] Old Spanish texts also have the unshifted forms bono, bonos and bonas.^[3] Popular pronunciation gives güeno, recorded in the Americas.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bonus (“good”), recorded as Old Spanish bueno in a charter of 1032 and in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[5][6][7][1] The learned ⟨bonus⟩ is a later borrowing of the same Latin word.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese bom, Galician bo, Asturian bonu, Catalan bo, Occitan bon, French bon, Italian buono and Romanian bun.^[5][8][1]

The Latin word is the later form of Old Latin duenos, found in the Duenos inscription, and duonus.^[9][1] It goes back to *dwenos (“good”).^[9][1] Its further origin is uncertain: de Vaan gives *duh₂-eno- with a question mark, and Wiktionary lists several proposed roots.^[9][1] bene (“well”) and bellus (“pretty”), once a diminutive, come from the same word.^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already uses it for “perfect of its kind”, “honourable, noble”, “brave in arms” and “favourable, lucky”, and as an epithet in the phrase el bueno de + name.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages bueno meant both “good of its kind” and “morally good”;^[10] Alfonso de Palencia (1490) defined bonus as one who is ready to do good.^[2][10] Covarrubias (1611) noted that the word is used even of bad things, as in una buena cuchillada “a fine slash”, and that buen hombre could mean a cuckold and buena mujer a whore.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as “perfect in its kind”, and also as “upright” and “holy, virtuous”.^[12] The 1884 Academy dictionary listed most of the modern senses, among them “tasty”, “big”, “healthy” and “too simple, naive”.^[13]

As an interjection ¡bueno! acknowledges an order, agrees, or expresses resignation or unpleasant surprise.^[14][1] In Mexico it is used to answer the telephone.^[1] In Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay el bueno is a deciding match, and in Mexico la buena.^[7][15] In Honduras and El Salvador bueno can mean “sober”.^[15] Among the derivatives, bonito (1517) shifted to “pretty” in the same way as Latin bellus.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1032 – first record, in a charter.^[5][6]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “noble”, “brave” and “lucky”.^[2]
• 1220–1250 – first record of the derivative bondad “goodness”.^[6]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Vocabulario defines bonus through bueno.^[10]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[4]
• 1517 – first record of bonito.^[6]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records buen hombre and buena mujer as insults.^[11]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as “perfect in its kind”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. bonus”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. good: having the qualities that suit its nature or purpose; morally good.^[7][1]
2. Useful or suitable for something: Esta tierra es buena para el trigo.^[7][1]
3. Pleasant, enjoyable; of food, tasty.^[7][1]
4. Big, more than usual (often ironic): Se llevó un buen susto.^[7][11]
5. healthy, well.^[7][1]
6. (ironic) Of a person: simple, good-natured or odd, mostly in el bueno de + name.^[7]
7. Of a thing: not damaged, still usable.^[7]
8. Enough, sufficient.^[7]
9. (colloquial, with estar) Physically attractive.^[1]

Noun

1. (Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador) A deciding match played to break a tie (la buena in Mexico).^[7][15]

Interjection

1. okay, all right: expressing agreement or acknowledging a request.^[14][1]
2. well: a pause or a start to what one is about to say.^[1]
3. Expressing resignation, impatience or unpleasant surprise.^[14]
4. (Mexico) Used when answering the telephone.^[1]

Word family

• bondad
• bondadoso
• bonito
• buenamente
• buenazo
• bonachón
• abonar
• embonar

Related words

• bien
• bonificar
• bonus
• Portuguese bom

Usage notes

The comparative is mejor or más bueno and the superlative buenísimo or, formally, bonísimo.^[1] With ser it describes a quality and with estar a state (está bueno “it tastes good; he is well”).^[1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 83
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. bueno
4. ^ a b 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. bueno
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 688
6. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bueno
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. bueno
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1208
9. ^ a b c d 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 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. 556
11. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 351
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 701
13. ^ 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. 171
14. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bueno
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. bueno