limpio

Forms

limpio (feminine limpia, masculine plural limpios, feminine plural limpias, superlative limpísimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin limpidus (“clear, transparent”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas shows from the dialect forms that the Latin word had a stressed short /i/: the expected early outcome was *lempio, which became the attested form by metaphony.^[2] The Latin sense “clean” is already found in the 5th century, in Caelius Aurelianus.^[2]

Few Romance languages kept the word: Portuguese limpo, Galician limpo, Asturian llimpiu and Romanian limpede (“clear”), beside a few Italian and Rhaeto-Romance dialect forms.^[2][5] Sardinian limpiu and Sicilian limpiu are borrowings from Spanish.^[2] The learned límpido is a doublet, which seems to have come through French in the 19th century.^[2][1]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unclear.^[6][1] De Vaan notes that limpor (“clear liquid”) is recorded earlier, and that the adjective may be a Sabellic form from a verb “to be liquid”; others relate it to lympha (“clear water”), or to the root of Ancient Greek λάμπω (lámpō, “to shine”).^[6][1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates it to the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) and says it was in general use in the Middle Ages.^[2][3][8] In Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) emery cleans metals, which then take on a better colour despues que fueren limpios “once they are clean”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's books already used it for “clean”, “unmixed, pure”, “free from harm” and “chaste”.^[9] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded limpio of an Old Christian with no Moorish or Jewish ancestry, and the phrase limpio de polvo y paja “clear of dust and chaff”, from grain handed over cleaned.^[10] Autoridades kept the sense of limpieza de sangre, and the DLE still lists it as historical.^[11][4]

From the 19th century the Academy recorded en limpio, both “net, after costs” and “in a fair copy”, and jugar limpio “to play fair”.^[12][13] In colloquial use dejar limpio or quedarse limpio means to lose all one's money.^[4][1] In the Americas the noun limpio names a clearing in the woods, in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina and elsewhere, and in the Canaries a sandy patch of seabed.^{[2][14][15][16]}

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first recorded, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses limpio of clean metals and clear stones.^[9]
• 1335 – first record of the derivative limpieza.^[3]
• 1490 – first record of the verb limpiar.^[3]
• 1543 – sacado en limpio in a document from Panama.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records limpio of Old Christians and limpio de polvo y paja.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy records en limpio and jugar limpio.^[12]
• 1869 – the learned doublet límpido first appears in the Academy's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. clean; without stains or dirt: una camisa limpia.^[4][1]
2. Of grain especially, unmixed with anything else, pure.^[4]
3. Of a person, habitually neat and tidy.^[4]
4. Free from anything harmful or polluting.^[4]
5. Stripped of everything superfluous: un diseño limpio.^[4]
6. sharp, not blurred: un sonido limpio.^[4]
7. honest, decent; fair: una elección limpia.^[4]
8. Innocent, free of guilt.^[4]
9. (historical) Of a person or family, with no Moorish, Jewish or heretic ancestry.^[4]
10. (colloquial) broke, having lost all one's money.^[4][1]
11. (colloquial) Of a sum of money, net.^[4]
12. (colloquial) Knowing nothing of a subject.^[4]
13. (colloquial) Of blows or shots in a fight, exchanged without any other means, as in a tiro limpio.^[4]

Adverb

1. Cleanly, fairly, as in jugar limpio.^[4][13]

Word family

• limpieza
• limpiar
• limpidez

Related words

• límpido
• linfa
• Latin limpidus
• Portuguese limpo
• English limpid

Usage notes

En limpio means both “net, after expenses” and “in a fair copy”, as in pasar en limpio “to make a fair copy”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 658
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. limpio
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. limpio
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3893
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. limpidus
8. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. limpio
9. ^ 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. limpio
10. ^ 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. 1087
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 409
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 531
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 440
14. ^ Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 206
15. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 664
16. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. limpio
17. ^ 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. limpio