leal

Forms

leal m or f (masculine and feminine plural leales)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote leyal and leial;^[2][3] leyal is the old Aragonese form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lēgālis (“of the law, legal”).^[4][5][6][1] Corominas sees no reason to treat it as a learned word, as Meyer-Lübke did; the learned doublet is legal, recorded about 1520.^[4][7] The Latin /g/ between vowels was lost.^[8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese leal, Galician leal, Asturian lleal, Catalan lleial, Occitan leial and French loyal, the last first recorded as leial in 1080.^{[3][9][10][4]} Italian leale was borrowed from Old French.^[7]

The Latin adjective is formed from lēx (“law”) and the suffix -ālis.^[11][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *lēg- for the noun, and gives Proto-Indo-European *lēǵ- (“collection”) with a question mark.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) uses it as a fixed epithet, el Canpeador leal “the loyal Campeador”, and of a man of Burgos.^[13][14] The Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211) says of King Josiah fo buen rei e leial “he was a good and loyal king”.^[13][15]

Semantic evolution

Latin lēgālis meant “of the law”; in Spanish the word moved to the loyalty owed to a lord, a fellow man or God.^[16][17] Berceo used it loosely for anything good or pleasing, even of the songs of birds.^[18] The legal sense survived for a while: Terreros noted that in old Castilian leal meant “just, lawful”, and Salvá marked the senses “legal” and “upright, firm” as obsolete.^[19][20]

Covarrubias in 1611 explained that it is said of an inferior to a superior, as of a vassal, or between equals, as of a friend, and that it is the opposite of “traitor”; he quoted the proverb No es la vida del leal, mas de quanto quiere el traydor “the loyal man lives only as long as the traitor wishes”.^[21] Autoridades added De los leales se hinchen los hospitales “the hospitals are filled with the loyal”, on how badly merit is rewarded.^[22] The Academy's 1843 edition first applied it to animals such as dogs and horses, and to mounts that are not vicious.^[23] In the Americas it was used from 1535 in the notarial formula leal saber y entender “to the best of one's knowledge”.^[24]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – Canpeador leal in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[14][4]
• c. 1194–1211 – leial in the Liber Regum.^[13]
• 1220–1250 – first record of the derivative lealtad.^[5]
• 1256 – a work of Alfonso X's prose uses it of a man loyal to his friends.^[25]
• c. 1520 – the learned doublet legal appears.^[4][5]
• 1535 – first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[24]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb No es la vida del leal, mas de quanto quiere el traydor.^[21]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. legalis”.^[26]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loyal, faithful: keeping the faith owed to someone or something; also as a noun, a loyal follower: El general reunió a sus leales.^[6][27][1]
2. trustworthy, truthful and faithful in dealings or in the performance of an office.^[6]
3. Of an action: befitting a loyal person.^[6]
4. Of a domestic animal such as a dog or a horse: showing its owner affection and faithfulness.^[6]
5. Of a horse or mule: not vicious or treacherous.^[6][23]

Word family

• lealtad
• desleal
• deslealtad
• lealmente

Related words

• legal
• ley
• Latin lēgālis
• Portuguese leal
• French loyal

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. leal
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3820
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 639
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ley
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. leal
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. legālis
8. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 90
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. lleial
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. loyal
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lēgālis
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. lēx
13. ^ 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. leal
14. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 322
15. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 271
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. leal
17. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. lēgālis
18. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 430
19. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 429
20. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 651
21. ^ 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. 1071
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 373
23. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 431
24. ^ 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. leal
25. ^ 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. leal
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. 633
27. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. leal