plácido

Forms

plácido (feminine plácida, masculine plural plácidos, feminine plural plácidas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin placidus (“gentle, calm, peaceful”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed from the verb placeō (“to be pleasing”) with the suffix -idus; its first sense in Latin was “disposed to please, kindly”.^[5][1] De Vaan traces that verb, and the related plācō (“to appease”), to a root Proto-Indo-European *pl(e)h₂/₃k- (“to agree, be pleasant”).^[6]

The verb survives in the old popular word placer, while the adjective entered the language only in the 16th century.^[3][2] The same Latin word gave Italian placido, French placide and English placid.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Breve diccionario dates the word to 1515, without quoting the passage.^[2][7] In his larger dictionary Corominas gives it only from the 17th-century authors quoted in Autoridades.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's definition has hardly changed: in 1817 it was “quiet, calm and undisturbed”, and the edition of 1869 added the sense “pleasant, gentle”.^[8][9][4] Domínguez in 1846 described it more fully as full of peace and calm, happy, agreeable.^[10] A 1655 description of Chile praises its cielo benévolo y plácido “kindly and gentle sky”.^[11] Moliner distinguishes its use of things (a calm sea or afternoon) from its use of people, either of a passing state of mind or of a character not easily upset.^[12]

Timeline

• 1515 – first record, according to Corominas.^[2][7]
• 1600s – Autoridades quotes the word from 17th-century authors.^[3]
• 1655 – first record from the Americas, in Chile.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as “quiet, calm and undisturbed”.^[8]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense “pleasant, gentle”.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives its Latin etymon placidus.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Quiet, calm (sosegado) and undisturbed; placid: Pasamos unas horas plácidas junto al lago.^[4][12][1]
2. Pleasant, agreeable, gentle (apacible).^[4][14]

Word family

• placidez

Related words

• placer
• apacible
• placentero
• aplacar
• Latin placidus

Usage notes

Plácido is also a man's given name, the Spanish form of Latin Placidus.^[1] Barcia records it as the name of Saint Placidus, a disciple of Saint Benedict, and as a mythological epithet of Jupiter and of Venus.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. placer
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 371
4. ^ a b c d 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. plácido
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 579
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 680
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 611
10. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1386
11. ^ 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. plácido
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. plácido
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 837
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. plácido
15. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 272