dictablanda

Borrowed from Spanish.

dictablanda (plural dictablandas)

1. (politics) A soft-handed dictatorship.

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.

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

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.

• “dictablanda”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014