baldragas

Spanish

Etymology

Distorted from Arabic بَطَّال (baṭṭāl) or another word from the root ب ط ل (b-ṭ-l), or maybe from بَتَرَ (batara, “to cut off”) in view of Salamancan baldorro (“beast that one culls for being old or sick”), baldorras and boldregas (“tattered”), Aragonese and Spanish baldrés (“tanned sheep hide”), Portuguese and Galician baldréu (“goat-hide for gloves; depraved person”), Canarian baladrón (“rascal”), Galician baladrón (“braggart”), Navarro-Aragonese baladreo (“frivolity, folly”), Galician baldreo (“dirty”), Portuguese boldrego (“filthy”), baldrejado (“filthy”), Portuguese baldroar (“to jest”), baldroca (“fraud”), baldroguerrio (“intrigant”), however Celtic and Romance explanations are given, note borrowed Latin balātrō (“jester”) and Latin balteus (“belt”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /balˈdɾaɡas/ [bal̪ˈd̪ɾa.ɣ̞as]
• Rhymes: -aɡas
• Syllabification: bal‧dra‧gas

Noun

baldragas m (plural baldragas)

1. (informal) wimp

Descendants

• → Catalan: baldragues

Further reading

• “baldragas”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans. Emprunts à l’arabe et aux langues du Monde Islamique (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 239