brando

Forms

brando (feminine branda, masculine plural brandos, feminine plural brandas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had both brando and blando, and the 15th century also wrote blãdo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin blandus (“charming, flattering”), written Old Galician-Portuguese brando and Old Galician-Portuguese blando in the oldest texts.^[2][3][5][1] Meyer-Lübke considered the Spanish and Portuguese forms learned, as Nascentes notes.^[6][7] The physical sense “soft, yielding to the touch” is foreign to the Latin word, and Corominas finds it already in 13th-century Spanish.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician brando, Spanish blando, Catalan bla, Italian blando, Old French blant and Romanian blând.^[1][6]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: de Vaan rejects a link with mollis (“soft”), and reports Schrijver's preform *mlh₂-d-no-, connecting it with μαλακός (malakós, “soft”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of vestiduras brandas “soft garments”, a passage the DDGM also cites with blandas.^[4] The Crónica Troiana calls a knight muy rrico et muy brando et muy sesudo “very rich, very gentle and very wise”.^[4] Machado's earliest record is of the 15th century, in a book of falconry.^[5] Blando appears as a personal name in a Latin charter of 1015.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary (1569) glosses the word as “mild”.^[10] Folqman (1755) separates soft to the touch, mild in temper and weak, and has vento brando for a light breeze.^[11] Morais (1789) defines it first as soft, yielding to pressure, like wax, and in 1813 lists gentle sleep, a soft voice, a gentle character and a low fire.^[12][13] The modern senses add lenient measures and a mild climate, and nautical use has brando as a noun for the slack of a rope.^[2][14][15] In the Algarve the derivative brandura means the morning dew.^[6]

Timeline

• 1015 – Blando as a personal name in a Latin charter.^[5]
• 13th century – vestiduras brandas in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the derivatives brandeza, brandura and abrandar.^[3]
• c. 1430 – brando in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[16]
• 15th century – the spelling blãdo, in Machado's earliest quotation, from a book of falconry.^[2][5]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists brando.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as soft, yielding to pressure.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. soft, yielding easily to pressure or to the touch; tender, supple.^[15][14][1]
2. gentle, meek, affable: um homem de génio brando.^[2][15]
3. Not severe or rigid; lenient: uma pena branda.^[2]
4. Of low intensity, mild: fogo brando, vento brando.^[2][17]
5. Of weather: pleasant and without rain.^[2]
6. Lacking energy or firmness; slow, unhurried.^[15][18]

Noun

1. (nautical) The slack of a rope.^[15][14] Colher o brando means to haul a rope in until it is taut without strain.^[15][14]

Word family

• abrandar
• brandura
• abrandamento
• brandeza

Related words

• blandícia
• Latin blandus
• Spanish blando

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. brando
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. brando
4. ^ a b c d 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. brando
5. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. brando
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1151
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 77
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 599
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. blandus
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. brando
11. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. brando
12. ^ a b 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, 195
13. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 298
14. ^ 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. brando
15. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. brando
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. brando
17. ^ 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. brando
18. ^ 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. brando