verde

Forms

verde m or f (masculine and feminine plural verdes)^[1] Old Spanish texts often write uerde.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish verde, inherited from Late Latin virdis (“green”), the syncopated form of Latin viridis (“green; vigorous, lively, young”).^[3][4][5][1] All the Romance languages start from this syncopated form, which must already have been Vulgar Latin, to judge by its derivative *virdia, the source of berza.^[3] The same word is Portuguese verde, Galician verde, Catalan verd, French vert, Italian verde and Romanian verde.^[6][7][1]

The Latin adjective is formed from vireō (“to be green, flourish”).^[1][8] The verb is of unknown origin.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1019 in Oelschläger's list; the word is also in Berceo and is common in every period.^[3][4] The DEMel cites uerde in a Leonese document of 1171.^[2] In the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) Noah's dove brings back an olive branch con sus fojas verdes “with its green leaves”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses verde for the colour, for wood and plants that are not dry, and for fruit that is not ripe.^[11] The figurative senses and set phrases are many: darse un verde “to have a short spell of fun” is in the second part of the Lazarillo (1555), and Covarrubias (1611) records estarse verde of someone who keeps a young man's vigour in old age.^[3][12] The modern viejo verde is a man who keeps sexual inclinations unsuited to his age, and chiste verde a dirty joke.^[5][1] Wiktionary also gives the sense “ecological, environmentally friendly”.^[1]

In Argentina un verde is mate drunk without sugar, or mate in general.^[3][13] Other American uses include “marijuana” (Mexico, Nicaragua, Chile), “bruised, purple” (Peru, Bolivia), “police officer” (Bolivia, Chile) and, in Venezuela, “dollar”.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 1019 – first record, in a charter.^[3][4]
• 1171 – uerde in a Leonese document.^[2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar speaks of green olive leaves.^[10]
• 1215 – verdugo, at first “green switch, rod”, is first recorded.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses verde for the colour and for unripe fruit.^[11]
• 1493 – the first record in the Americas, of green trees in Santo Domingo.^[14]
• 1555 – darse verdes in the second part of the Lazarillo.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records estarse verde and no dejar verde ni seco “to sweep everything away”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy calls green the fourth colour of the spectrum.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. green: of the colour of fresh grass or an emerald, fourth in the spectrum.^[5][1]
2. Of a tree or plant: still holding some sap, not dry; of firewood, freshly cut.^[5]
3. Of vegetables: eaten fresh rather than dried: judías verdes.^[5]
4. Of fruit: unripe.^[5][1]
5. (figurative) Of a person: inexperienced, not yet ready: Todavía está muy verde para dirigir el equipo.^[5][1]
6. Of years of life: youthful.^[5]
7. Of a joke, a story or a play: risqué, dirty; of a person: keeping sexual inclinations unsuited to their age: viejo verde.^[5][1]
8. Of a place: set aside as a park or garden, where building is not allowed: zona verde.^[5]
9. Environmentally friendly, ecological.^[1]

Noun

1. The colour green.^[5][1]
2. (Argentina) Mate, the infusion.^[13][3]
3. (Venezuela, colloquial) A dollar.^[1]

Word family

• verdasca
• verdear
• verdeguear
• verderón
• verdín
• verdor
• verdoso
• verdura
• verdusco
• reverdecer

Related words

• berza
• Latin viridis
• Portuguese verde

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. verde
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 781
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. verde
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. verde
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9368
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7206
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vert
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. verde
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. verde
11. ^ a b 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. verde
12. ^ 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. 1380
13. ^ 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. verde
14. ^ 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. verde
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1081