grandioso

Forms

grandioso (feminine grandiosa, masculine plural grandiosos, feminine plural grandiosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish grande + -oso, perhaps influenced by glorioso.^[1][2] Corominas traces it more exactly to the old noun grandía “greatness”, which often meant “excess, bravado”.^[3][4] The adjective grande continues Latin grandis.^[3]

Corominas, following Menéndez Pidal, holds that the word is a Spanish creation that Italian borrowed as grandioso in the second half of the 17th century, and that French grandiose (1798), German grandios (1781) and the English word grandiose (1840) followed.^[3][1] Nocentini also derives the Italian word from Spanish, but dates it in the 16th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wiktionary dates the first record to the early 1400s, in poems by Alfonso Álvarez de Villasandino and Francisco Imperial in the Cancionero de Baena; the Old Spanish Textual Archive has it from 1422.^[1][6] The DCECH's first records are Ribadeneira (1599–1601) and the Quijote (1605), and Corominas's Breve diccionario dates it 1600.^[3][4] A text from Tucumán of 1600 speaks of cosas grandiosas in the Indies.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 used it of a person of spirit, generous and of great condition.^[3] Autoridades defines it as magnificent, excellent, illustrious and full of majesty, quoting Ribadeneira's Flos sanctorum on grandiosos convites “splendid banquets”.^[8] The noun grandiosidad appears in the Quijote in 1615.^[3] Since 1869 the Academy has defined the adjective as “outstanding, magnificent”, and today it is said above all of things that impress by their size, beauty or meaning.^[9][2][10]

Timeline

• early 1400s – poems in the Cancionero de Baena.^[1]
• 1422 – the first text in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[6]
• 1599–1601 – Ribadeneira, the DCECH's first record.^[3]
• 1600 – first record in the Americas, in Tucumán.^[7]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it.^[3]
• 1615 – grandiosidad in the Quijote.^[3]
• second half of the 17th century – Italian grandioso, taken from Spanish.^[3]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary defines it as “outstanding, magnificent”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. grandiose, magnificent, outstanding.^[2][1]
2. Impressive by its size, beauty or significance: Desde la cumbre se ve un panorama grandioso.^[10][11]

Word family

• grandiosidad

Related words

• grandeza
• Italian grandioso
• French grandiose

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. grandioso
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 194
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grande
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. grande
6. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 73
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 392
10. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grandioso
11. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. grandioso