de balde

Galician

Etymology

Attested since circa 1300. Ultimately from Andalusian Arabic بَاطِل (báṭil), from Arabic بَاطِل (bāṭil, “vain”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [deˈβaldɪ]

Adverb

de balde

1. gratis, for free

   Synonym: gratis

2. (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

Related terms

• en balde

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

1. (idiomatic) for free, for nothing
2. (idiomatic) for a song
3. (idiomatic) left over, unwanted

Further reading

• “de balde”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 23rd edition, Royal Spanish Academy, 2014 October 16