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

• “balde” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “de balde” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “balde” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “de balde” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “de balde” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014