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de balde. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
de balde, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
de balde in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Galician
Etymology
Attested since circa 1300. Ultimately from Andalusian Arabic بَاطِل (báṭil), from Arabic بَاطِل (bāṭil, “vain”)
Pronunciation
Adverb
de balde
- gratis, for free
- Synonym: gratis
- (dated) uselessly, in vain
- Synonyms: en balde, en van
c. 1295, R. Lorenzo, editor, La traducción gallega de la Crónica General y de la Crónica de Castilla, Ourense: I.E.O.P.F, page 146:Et, poys que nos auemos sofrido gram lazeyra et estamos en estado qual nũca coydamos, loado a Deus, se assy o perdessemos, toda nossa lazeyra seria passada de balde- And, since we have suffered great pain and still we are in a state that we would never have thought, praised be God, if we so lose it all of our sufferings would have been in vain
References
- Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “balde”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “de balde”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “balde”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “de balde”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “de balde”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN
Spanish
Adverb
de balde
- (idiomatic) for free, for nothing
- (idiomatic) for a song
- (idiomatic) left over, unwanted
Further reading