Esperanto · 19 October 2026
A word a day week
bona
BO-na · /ˈbona/ · adjective
- good
Bona is good in the broad, useful sense—and its root was recognisable enough to travel onward into Toki Pona as pona.
Borrowed luggage
Where it came from
Latin / Romancebonus / buona
Esperantobona
The root aligns with Latin bonus and Romance forms such as Italian buona; -a is the Esperanto adjective ending.
- Latin bonus
- Italian buono / buona
- French bon / bonne
Tiny sentence
Tio estas bona.
that be.PRS good.ADJ
“That is good.”
Bona is predicative here. The same root makes bone, ‘well’, by changing -a to -e.
Receipts
Sources and cautions
The origin is best understood as a Romance internationalism. Its later borrowing into Toki Pona is documented separately on that site.