communicable

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French communicable (“affable, sociable; that may be communicated”) and its source borrowed from Late Latin commūnicābilis,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from commūnicō (“to share, impart, make common”) and the suffix -bilis,^[2][4][7] the verb being related to commūnis (“common, public, general”).^[3] In Late Latin the adjective meant "affable, sociable" from the late 4th century and "capable of being communicated" from the late 5th; the French word had the same two senses by about 1400 and 1481, and was used of a contagious disease from 1690.^[2] The OED compares Catalan comunicable (1490), Spanish comunicable (15th century), Portuguese comunicável (1573) and Italian comunicabile (early 14th century).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Communicating, connected, especially by water: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, of the abyss that takes in all water and passes it on to the streams.^[2][8] The Oxford Dictionary of English likewise gives "communicating, having communication" as the first sense.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From before 1533, in Lord Berners's translation of Guevara, a quality could be communicable, able to be passed on, and a person communicable, ready to talk and share news;^[2][3] Merriam-Webster dates the first of these senses to 1534.^[4] From 1587 knowledge or information that could be conveyed was communicable,^[2] and the Historical Thesaurus links the word's move from transferring to speaking to a pattern that began in 1500–1549.^[10] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "that which may become the common possession of more than one" and "that which may be imparted, or recounted", with quotations from Hooker and Milton.^[11] The medical sense, of a disease that can pass from one person or animal to another, is first recorded in 1713, in a work by W. Cockburn on gonorrhoea,^[2] after French had used its word of contagious diseases from 1690.^[2] It is now the most familiar use, as in communicable disease.^[4][12][13] The talkative sense became archaic,^[5] and the old sense "connected" is now rare.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1398 – communicating, connected, especially by water, in Trevisa.^[2][8]
• before 1529 – having a common or mutual relationship (obsolete), in Skelton.^[2]
• before 1533 – of a quality, able to be imparted; of a person, ready to converse, both in Lord Berners's translation of Guevara.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster dates the first of these to 1534.^[4]
• 1583 – of a word or name, generally applicable (obsolete after 1717).^[2]
• 1587 – of information or knowledge, able to be conveyed.^[2]
• 1686 – in the Church, eligible to receive communion (now historical).^[2]
• 1713 – of a disease, able to be passed from one person or animal to another.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a disease, able to be passed from one person or animal to another; infectious or contagious: Tuberculosis is a communicable illness.^{[4][12][13][2]}
2. Able to be communicated, imparted or conveyed to others: an enthusiasm easily communicable to her students.^{[4][12][13][2]}
3. (archaic) Ready to talk or share information; communicative.^{[5][4][12][2]}
4. (now rare) Connected or communicating, especially by water.^[2][8][5]

Word family

• communicability
• communicably
• communicableness
• uncommunicable
• noncommunicable

Related words

• communicate
• common
• communication
• communicative
• communion

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins