hermoso

Forms

hermoso (feminine hermosa, masculine plural hermosos, feminine plural hermosas, superlative hermosísimo)^[1] Old Spanish wrote fermoso;^[2] fremoso is not rare in the Middle Ages (in the Libro de Alexandre), and formoso is in a 14th-century manuscript of Berceo's Santo Domingo.^[2] Spellings with h- appear in the HSMS texts from 1401 on.^[3] Judeo-Spanish has ermozo and fermozo;^[1][4] Canarian speech says jermoso.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fermoso, inherited from Latin fōrmōsus (“finely formed, beautiful”).^[2][5][6][1] Classical Latin had both pulcher and this word; the first, more frequent and more abstract, left no trace in Romance, while the second lived on in Romanian frumos, Portuguese formoso (old fermoso) and Spanish, thanks to its link with fōrma; the other languages preferred the popular, affectionate bellus.^[2][7] Corominas regards the rare Old Catalan formós and Old Occitan formós as Latinisms, and Catalan hermós, well rooted in modern Catalan, as a Castilianism.^[2]

The first /o/ became /e/ by dissimilation from the stressed /o/, giving *fermosus, and the Latin /f/ became an aspirate written ⟨h⟩, which is no longer pronounced.^[8][9]

This adjective is formed from Latin fōrma (“form, beauty”) + -ōsus (“full of”).^[1][10] The origin of the noun is unclear: de Vaan considers a dissimilation of an older *morma, and a borrowing shared with Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) from a third language.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds fermoso first in a charter of 1102 and then in the Cantar de mio Cid; the BDELC gives 1102.^[2][5] Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) describes a stone as uerde de muy fermosa uerdura “green, of a very beautiful green”, and calls a man muy apuesto & muy fermoso en todos sus fechos “very fine and very excellent in all his deeds”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word has been popular and in general use in every period.^[2] Nebrija in 1495 rendered it with Latin pulcher and formosus, and Covarrubias in 1611 said it is used of all that pleases with its look and draws the mind and will after it.^[13][14] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as perfect, beautiful, pleasing to the eye and complete in its kind; figuratively as singular in its line, good or bad; and it recorded señora hermosa as a familiar courtly way of addressing women and the proverb mi hija hermosa, el lunes a Toro y el martes a Zamora, against women who like to gad about.^[15]

The Academy's 1884 dictionary gave the senses “grand, excellent” and, of the weather, “clear, calm”.^[16] The DLE adds the colloquial sense of a child: robust, healthy.^[6] Moliner notes that it suggests an impressive beauty, from perfection or size, and is also said of noble or generous deeds.^[17]

Timeline

• 1102 – fermoso in a charter, the first record.^[2][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2]
• 1220–1250 – the derivative hermosura (as fermosura, in Berceo).^[5][2]
• 1250–1279 – fermosa in Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[12]
• 1401 – the first spellings with h- in the HSMS texts.^[3]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, fermosa, in Santo Domingo.^[18]
• 1495 – hermosear is first recorded, in Nebrija.^[5][2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin formosus.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology Del lat. formōsus.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. beautiful, handsome, lovely: unas vistas hermosas.^[6][1]
2. Grand, excellent and perfect of its kind.^[6]
3. Of the weather: clear, calm and fine.^[6]
4. Large and well proportioned: una casa hermosa.^[6][17]
5. (colloquial) Of a child: robust, healthy.^[6]
6. Of an action: noble, generous.^[17][19]

Word family

• hermosear
• hermosura

Related words

• forma
• Latin fōrmōsus
• Portuguese formoso

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 348
3. ^ 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, p. s.v. hermoso
4. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. hermoso
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hermoso
6. ^ 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. hermoso
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3450
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. hermoso
9. ^ 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. 274
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. hermoso
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 361
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 971
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 145
16. ^ 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. 561
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hermoso
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. fermoso
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. hermoso