A good part of the catalog of proverbs, sayings and phrases made in Spanish reflects our historical past. They are phrases that originated centuries ago and have been transmitted by word of mouth, and then also in writing, to this day, forming part of our popular wisdom. As an example, this button: “have wide sleeves.” What does that expression mean and where does it come from?
Surely almost everyone knows what “have a wide sleeve” means, or at least uses the expression in its proper context. And that the meaning is not deduced from the sum of the three words that make up the idiom.
We went to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) to find out the definition it offers of the expression having a wide sleeve: “Lenity or excessive indulgence”. Lenity is the softness when it comes to demanding the fulfillment of duties or punishing faults.
In other words, for someone to have a wide sleeve means that they are tolerant, permissive or benevolent, perhaps even too much.
Like many other sayings, the origin of the phrase is ecclesiastical. Specifically, it has to do with the habits and cassocks of monks and priests, clothing whose sleeves are baggy. There is an image that the religious who administer the sacrament of confession are permissive people when they have to listen to the sins of the parishioners. “Having wide sleeves” comes precisely from that idea.
The saying originated long ago, several centuries ago. Lucía Luque Nadal, in her book Principles of Spanish culturology and phraseology, specifies that the sleeves of the expression are related to the habits of the Dominicans. In addition, the author establishes the incorporation into Spanish of the phrase “to have a wide sleeve” during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (1479-1516). Come on, the expression has been used for more than 500 years.
The part of the dress that the arm goes into has other very popular expressions. There they are, for example, “to have an ace up your sleeve”, that is, to have saved a resource or a surprise; “shoulder sleeve”, used to say that something is messy or “good times, green sleeves”, to express that something or someone has arrived too late to help or contribute. The phrase of the green sleeves, by the way, is from the same period as the one of the wide sleeve.
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