lleno

Forms

lleno (feminine llena, masculine plural llenos, feminine plural llenas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish lleno, also written leno, lenno and llieno, inherited from Latin plēnus (“full”).^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} The word has been in general use in every period and is common to all the Romance languages.^[2] The form pleno of the Glosas Silenses is also the normal one in the dialect of Berceo.^[2] Spanish took the Latin word again as the learned doublet pleno, first in Cervantes, which the BDELC dates to the beginning of the 17th century.^[2][3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese cheio, Galician cheo, Asturian llenu, Catalan ple, French plein, Italian pieno and Romanian plin.^[7][8][9][1] The Latin adjective goes back to *plēnos, from an e-grade variant of *pl̥h₁nós (“full”); among its cognates are Ancient Greek πλήρης (plḗrēs), Sanskrit पूर्ण (pūrṇa) and the English word full.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the form pleno in the Glosas Silenses;^[6] lleno itself is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140): „dos arcas llennas de oro” “two chests full of gold”.^[2][3][6] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for a stone hollow inside and filled with a thin substance like a cobweb, and for the full moon.^[10]

Semantic evolution

For most of its history lleno had no verb of its own: llenar is recorded only from 1535, in Juan de Valdés, and before the 16th century the usual verb for “to fill” was henchir.^[2][3] Autoridades therefore treated lleno as the participle of llenar, and also recorded the noun lleno for “abundance” and for the perfection or final completion of something, and the heraldic sense.^[11] The Academy added the full moon (1817), a full pulse in medicine (1843) and the nautical sense of a rounded hull (1884).^[12][13][14] In 1899 it recorded the noun lleno for an audience filling every seat of a theatre or circus.^[15] The euphemism “plump” and the sense “sated with food” were in the 2001 edition.^[16]

In Chile, Paraguay and Argentina lleno also means “fed up” with something or someone.^[17] In the Dominican Republic it is said of a fruit that is fully grown or ready to pick, and of a pregnant woman.^[18] The Judeo-Spanish form is yeno.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: dos arcas llennas de oro.^[6][3]
• early 13th century – the spelling leno in the Fuero de Coria.^[5]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the luna llena.^[10]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin plenus.^[19]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1535 – the verb llenar in Juan de Valdés's Diálogo de la lengua.^[2][3]
• 1817 – the Academy records the noun lleno for the full moon and the adverb de lleno.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy records lleno “full house” in a theatre.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. full: filled to the limit, or occupied by many people or things: un cajón lleno de papeles.^[4][1]
2. With every seat or place taken.^[4]
3. Having plenty of something: un texto lleno de errores.^[4]
4. Full, sated with food or drink.^[4][21]
5. (euphemistic, often in the diminutive llenito) Of a person or part of the body: a little plump.^[4]
6. Of a female animal: pregnant.^[4]
7. (heraldry) Of a shield or charge: bearing a tincture different from its field over two thirds of its width.^[4]
8. (nautical) Of a hull or frame: very rounded, of great capacity.^[4]

Noun

1. A full house: every seat of a public venue taken: El estreno tuvo un lleno absoluto.^[4]
2. (obsolete) Fullness, culmination; abundance.^[4][11]
3. (nautical, plural) The rounded shape of a ship's bottom, and the part of the hull between the stem and stern rakes.^[4]

Word family

• llenar
• relleno
• rellenar
• llenura

Related words

• pleno
• Latin plēnus
• Portuguese cheio

Usage notes

De lleno means “fully, squarely”, with full force or complete dedication.^[4][12] Luna llena is the full moon.^[10][12]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 731
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lleno
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. lleno
5. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lleno
6. ^ a b c d Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 278
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6596
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 814
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. llenu
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. lleno
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 423
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 539
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 447
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 657
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 615
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. lleno
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lleno
18. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. lleno
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 374
20. ^ 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. lleno
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lleno