dictablanda

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish.

Noun

dictablanda (plural dictablandas)

1. (politics) A soft-handed dictatorship.

Translations

soft-handed dictatorship

• Portuguese: ditabranda f
• Spanish: dictablanda (es) f

Spanish

FWOTD – 25 April 2014

Etymology

A pun on dictadura (“dictatorship”), reanalyzing the -dura as being the adjective dura (“hard”) and replacing it with the adjective blanda (“soft”). Compare Portuguese ditabranda.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /diɡtaˈblanda/ [d̪iɣ̞.t̪aˈβ̞lãn̪.d̪a]
• Rhymes: -anda
• Syllabification: dic‧ta‧blan‧da

Noun

dictablanda f (plural dictablandas)

1. a soft-handed dictatorship
   • 1994, Santiago Álvarez, Negrín, personalidad histórica, Ediciones de la Torre, page 54:

     […] , durante la dictablanda que sucedió a la dictatura de Primo de Rivera.

     […] , during the soft-handed dictatorship that followed Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship.

Further reading

• “dictablanda”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10