útil

Forms

útil m or f (masculine and feminine plural útiles)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin ūtilis (“useful”), first recorded in 1438.^{[2][3][2][3][4][1]} The Latin adjective is formed from ūtor (“to use”) with the suffix -ilis.^[1][5] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *oit-e/o- (“to use”);^[6] Old Latin inscriptions still have oitile.^[6] The same Latin word gave Catalan útil, Portuguese útil and French utile.^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date the adjective to the Corbacho of 1438; the DCECH's next record is Laguna in 1555.^[2][3] DICCA-XV reports an earlier CORDE record of 1334.^[10] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 glosses utilis as cosa provechosa “a profitable thing”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Autoridades has the adjective for what brings profit, comfort or interest, and for what can serve in some line; used as a noun, el útil meant “usefulness, profit”, and in law útil was said of the working days counted in a legal term.^[11] The noun sense “profit” is in a letter from Chile of 1545, the first record from the Americas.^[12] Its derivatives came later: utilizar at the end of the 17th century and inútil in the 16th.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1438 – first record, in the Corbacho.^[2][3]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses utilis with it.^[10]
• 1545 – el útil “the profit” in a letter from Chile.^[12]
• 1555 – Laguna uses it.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – the Autoridades gives the senses “profitable” and “serviceable” and the legal sense.^[11]
• 1872 – útil “tool”, from French outil, is first recorded.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology Del lat. utilis and adds the sense “utensil”.^[13][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. useful, profitable: bringing benefit, comfort or gain.^[4][14][1]
2. Able to serve in some way: Esta escalera todavía es útil.^[4][14]
3. (law) Of days: counted in a legal term, leaving out those on which no proceedings can take place: días útiles.^[4][11]

Noun

1. Usefulness, the quality of being useful.^[4]
2. A tool or utensil, usually in the plural: útiles de pesca.^[4][15]

Word family

• utilizar
• utilitario

Related words

• inútil
• utilidad
• uso
• utensilio

Usage notes

Útil “tool” comes from French outil, which goes back to a Vulgar Latin metathesis of Latin ūtēnsilia (“utensils”).^[2][3][15] It is recorded from 1872;^[1][16] Corominas calls it a crude, needless Gallicism, but the Academy admitted it in 1884, and the DRAE treats it as a second headword.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 724
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. uso
4. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. útil
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 711
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ūtor
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. útil
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3447
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. utile
10. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. útil
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 402
12. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. útil
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1065
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. útil
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. útil 2
16. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 463