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bonança

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word bonança

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria, spelt bonaça More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin *bonacia
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek μαλακία

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /boˈnɐ̃.sɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /buˈnɐ̃.sɐ/[1]

Forms

bonança f (plural bonanças)[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote bonaça and bõaça;[2][3][4] bonança is recorded from the 15th century.[2][3][4] The 16th century also wrote bonãça.[5][6]

Etymology

Houaiss takes it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *bonacia, an alteration of Latin malacia (“dead calm at sea”).[2][7] The Latin noun had been mistaken for a derivative of malus (“bad”) and was remade with bonus (“good”).[7][1][8][9] It is a borrowing of Ancient Greek μαλακία (malakía, “softness”), from μαλακός (malakós, “soft”).[10][1][8]

Wiktionary, Porto Editora and Michaelis derive the word instead from Spanish bonanza, and the DLP calls this possible.[1][11][12][13] Machado thought it possibly Castilian, unless it is a Portuguese formation, as the 13th-century form Old Galician-Portuguese bõaça would suggest.[4] Houaiss objects that the Portuguese word is recorded in the 13th century, while the Spanish one is first found about 1428, so Spanish influence is hard to reconcile with the dates.[2] The Spanish dictionaries date their word from the early 15th century and derive it from the same Vulgar Latin form.[9][14]

The same Vulgar Latin form is behind Italian bonaccia, French bonace and Catalan bonança.[15][8][1] Vieira explained the word as a formation from bom with the suffix -ança, and Silva Bastos and Figueiredo simply referred it to the Latin adjective for “good” alone.[16][17][18]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria sailors at sea meet tan gran bonaça que non podia mayor “so great a calm that there could be no greater”.[3] A cantiga by Gonçal Eannes do Vinhal in the Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional has bõaça beside bon tempo and tormenta do mar “storm at sea”.[4] In both the word is the calm of the sea.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of fair weather at sea has stayed the main one; 16th-century writers also used the word as an adjective, as in ventos bonanças “fair winds”.[4][19] The figurative sense of good fortune is old: Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate the word only with Latin words for prosperity, and Bluteau (1712–1728) gives the calm sea first and prosperity as the metaphor.[6][20][21] Bluteau also records tempo bonança, vento bonança and mar bonança.[21] Modern dictionaries add peace of mind and a happy, prosperous time after hardship.[2][12][13]

The proverb depois da tempestade vem a bonança “after the storm comes the calm” is recorded in Brazil.[22] A dialect variant benância is recorded in Portugal.[22]

Timeline

  • 1200s – bonaça in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[3][2]
  • 1200s – bõaça in a cantiga by Gonçal Eannes do Vinhal.[4]
  • c. 1428 – first record of the Spanish word, according to Houaiss.[2]
  • 1400s – first record of the spelling bonança.[2]
  • 1544 – bonãça in a private letter.[5]
  • 1569 – Cardoso translates bonãça with Latin words for prosperity.[6]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the calm sea as the first sense and records tempo bonança and vento bonança.[21]
  • 1789 – Morais defines it as good weather at sea for sailing.[23]
  • 1871 – Vieira records the variant abanança.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (nautical) Calm weather with a light wind and a smooth sea, good for sailing; a calm.[2][7][24][1]
  2. The calm that follows a storm at sea.[12][13]
  3. (figurative) tranquillity, peace of mind, especially after a troubled time: Depois das discussões veio a bonança.[2][13][1]
  4. (by extension) A happy, prosperous time; good fortune.[2][12]

Adjective

  1. (dated) Calm, fair; bonançoso: mar bonança, tempo bonança.[7][19]

Word family

  • bonançoso

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bonança
  3. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. bonaça
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bonança
  5. ^ a b CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. bonança
  6. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bonãça
  7. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bonança
  8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bonace
  9. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bonanza
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1475
  12. ^ a b c d Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. bonança
  13. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. bonança
  14. ^ 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. bonanza
  15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  16. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 795
  17. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. bonança
  18. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. bonança
  19. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. bonança
  20. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bonança
  21. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bonança
  22. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. bonança
  23. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 189
  24. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. bonança

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Bonança.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/bonan%C3%A7a. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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