ligeramente

Forms

ligeramente^[1] Old Spanish wrote the adverb in several shapes, as one word or two: ligeramiente, ligera mientre, ligera mient, ligera ment and ligeramente.^[2][3] A 13th-century Aragonese translation of the Psalter has legerament.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish ligero + -mente, the adjective “light, quick” with the adverbial suffix.^[1][4] ligero is from French léger (“light, not heavy”), which comes from Vulgar Latin *leviārius, a derivative of Latin levis (“light”) with the same meaning;^[5][6] Spanish has it from 1220–50.^[5][6] DICCA-XV gives the same chain for the adverb.^[7]

Echegaray and Barcia compared the parallel adverbs Catalan lleugerament, French légèrement and Italian leggermente, built in the same way.^[8][9] The medieval spellings in ⟨-miente⟩, ⟨-mientre⟩ and ⟨-ment⟩ show older forms of the suffix, which settled as ⟨-mente⟩.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the Libro de los doce sabios, dated about 1237 but known from a manuscript of about 1400, where a ruler “should not be moved ligeramente to grant favours” before he knows who deserves them, that is, rashly.^[3] In the Alfonsine Lapidario (c. 1250, in a manuscript of the same century) a stone makes a man do his deeds de ligeramiente, “with ease”, and the Fuero Juzgo speaks of a person who should not be believed ligeramientre, “readily”.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

The prose of Alfonso X already shows three senses: “quickly, nimbly”, “without reflection” and “easily”.^[10] Nebrija's Latin equivalents are leviter, agiliter and velociter, and his Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 uses ligera mente to gloss both celeriter “quickly” and facile “easily”.^[11][7]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the sense “quickly” first, then “lightly, gently”, with a passage of the Lazarillo where the boy touches the loaves mui ligeramente, and then “easily, without due reflection”.^[12] The Academy's edition of 1817 set the order still used: “with lightness”, “in passing, slightly”, figuratively “without reflection”, and an obsolete “easily”.^[13] Today the DLE keeps these four, with “easily” marked as no longer used, and Wiktionary gives the common modern senses “slightly” and “lightly”.^[14][1]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Lapidario of Alfonso X has de ligeramiente “easily”.^[3][10]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre, in a 15th-century copy, has ligeramiente “nimbly”, of Diomedes lifting Aeneas.^[3]
• c. 1250–1260 – the Fuero Juzgo uses ligeramientre “readily” of belief.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives leviter, agiliter and velociter.^[11]
• 1519 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico, spelt lixeramente.^[15]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “quickly”, “gently” and “easily, without reflection”.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy marks the sense “easily” as obsolete.^[13]

Meanings

Adverb

1. lightly, with lightness; quickly, nimbly: Saltó ligeramente por encima de la valla.^[14][16]
2. In passing; slightly, a little: La sopa estaba ligeramente salada.^[14][1]
3. Without reflection, rashly, a la ligera.^[14][16]
4. (obsolete) Easily.^[14][13]

Related words

• ligereza
• leve
• aligerar
• French légèrement

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. ligeramente
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ligeramente
4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. ligeramente
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ligero
6. ^ a b 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. ligero
7. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. ligeramente
8. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 130
9. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 412
10. ^ a b c 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. ligeramente
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 371
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 404
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 530
14. ^ a b c d e 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. ligeramente
15. ^ 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. ligeramente
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ligeramente