Blanco

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. An informal term used to refer to something that is plain or lacking distinctive features
2. A Spanish word meaning white, often used in contexts involving color or purity
3. Denotes a blank space or condition, implying absence or emptiness

Etymology: Spanish inherited its word for white from a Germanic source, not from the classical Latin term. Classical Latin used "albus" for white, but late Latin developed "blancus," which spread through the Romance languages of Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula. It probably came from a Frankish word, reconstructed as "blank," meaning something like "shining" or "gleaming," which the Franks brought into Roman Gaul. That same Germanic root gave English "blank," which arrived through Old French "blanc." The English sense of "unmarked" developed later, so a blank sheet of paper is, in origin, a gleaming white one. Spanish kept the colour sense and added a specialised one: "el blanco" is the target in archery and shooting, the white centre of the bullseye, and "dar en el blanco" means to hit the mark.

Synonyms: white, blank, blank space

Antonyms: colored, filled