liviano

Forms

liviano (feminine liviana, masculine plural livianos, feminine plural livianas)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote leviano, as in the Libro de Alexandre and the Fueros de Aragón of about 1300.^[2] Medieval spellings include liuiano, liuiana, lyuiano and lliuianos.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish liviano, inherited from Vulgar Latin *leviānus, a derivative of Latin levis (“light in weight”) with the suffix -ānus.^[2][4][5][1] The same Vulgar Latin derivative gave Galician levián “light” and Old Galician-Portuguese livão, recorded in the third quarter of the 13th century.^[2][1] Gallo-Romance and Catalan preferred another derivative, *leviārius, whose outcome French léger Spanish borrowed as ligero.^[2]

The Latin adjective itself survives in Italian lieve, Old French lief, Old Occitan leu and Catalan lleu, and in Old Spanish lieve.^[6][7][8] Spanish leve is a learned word.^[6][7][8] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *leχu- and an old u-stem adjective, Proto-Indo-European *h₁legʷʰ-u- (“light”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἐλαχύς (elakhús, “small”); he takes the nasal found in most other languages' forms to be secondary.^[9] Wiktionary starts instead from *h₁léngʷʰus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (stanza 888), where, as in the Libro de Alexandre, the word means “quick, nimble”.^[2][4] DEMel lists earlier records in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250) and the Vida de Santa María Egipciaca (c. 1215–1220).^[3] In Alfonso X's Lapidario it describes a porous stone that feels rough and light in the hand.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages liviano was the common word for “light”, “quick” and, of a wound, “not serious”, and these senses were still current in Golden Age Spain.^[2] The prose of Alfonso X already has it for what is fickle, of little importance, and unchaste: the General Estoria (1280) compares Israel to a mugier del sieglo liuiana.^[10] Covarrubias (1611) explains it as anything of little weight, applied by transfer to an inconstant man.^[11] Corominas dates the sense “lewd” in literature from 1626 (Céspedes).^[2]

As a noun, livianos “lungs” is first recorded in Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen and named after the lightness of the organ; it was frequent in the Middle Ages and the Golden Age and has declined since the 18th century.^[12][4] The Academy added the sense “donkey that leads the pack train” in 1899.^[13] In Spain ligero has almost entirely replaced it in the physical sense, which survives in Leonese and in Latin America, so that standard peninsular use leans to the figurative and pejorative senses.^[2] Latin American Spanish has developed senses such as “undemanding” (of work), “pleasant, easygoing” (of a person) and, in Ecuador, “low in calories”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – DEMel's earliest primary record, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[3]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Milagros: Corominas's first record.^[2][4]
• 1236–1246 – first record of the noun “lung”, in Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen.^[12]
• c. 1250 – the derivative liviandad appears in the Setenario.^[2][4]
• 1280 – the General Estoria uses it of a wanton woman.^[10]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia has livianos “lungs”.^[4][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records livianos o bofes de assadura and the verb alivianar.^[15][4]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme, of light muskets.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the transferred sense “inconstant”.^[11]
• 1626 – Céspedes uses it for “unchaste”.^[2]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the lead donkey of a pack train.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. light, of little weight: Prefiero una chaqueta liviana para el viaje.^[5][1]
2. fickle, changeable (inconstante).^[5]
3. Of little importance, trivial.^[5][1]
4. Of loose sexual morals.^[5]
5. (Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina) Of work, needing little effort.^[14]
6. (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia) Of a person, pleasant, easygoing.^[14][1]

Noun

1. (usually in the plural) lung, especially of slaughtered animals (bofe).^[5][1]
2. The donkey that leads a pack train.^[5]
3. (feminine, liviana) A flamenco song form related to the seguiriya.^[5]

Word family

• alivianar
• liviandad
• ultraliviano

Related words

• aliviar
• leve
• ligero
• Latin levis
• Galician levián

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 k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 636
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. liviano, a
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. leve
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. liviano
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3847
8. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 180
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. liviano
11. ^ 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. 1090
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. liviano
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 607
14. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. liviano
15. ^ 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. liviano
16. ^ 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. liviano