Note 128 — EL CAPITÁN VENENO[4]

a solas, alone, privately: as feminine -mente is universal for the adverb ending, and as cosa is so often understood, it has come about that the fashion is to make adverbial expressions with a feminine form: cf. apenas, a duras penas, a ciegas; and even where the feminine is illogical, as in a ojos vistas, a pie juntillas, a ojos cegarritas: two constructions are confused, the adverb from a noun: a ojos, a pie, a la vista, and the adverb from an adjective.