admirable

Forms

admirable m or f (masculine and feminine plural admirables)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin admīrābilis (“deserving of wonder, astonishing”),^[2][1][3] first found in the form amirable in 1381.^[4][5] Corominas dates it, with admirar and admiración, to about 1440.^[6]

The Latin adjective is formed from admīror (“to wonder at, admire”) with the suffix -bilis,^[7][1] and the verb from ad- and mīror (“to wonder at”),^[8] which Spanish inherited as mirar.^[6] The same Latin word gave French admirable and Italian ammirabile,^[9] and English has admirable.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the DEMel and the CDH is Estéfano de Sevilla's Visita y consejo de médicos, a treatise of 1381 on the health of the archbishop, which praises a regimen as conseruatjuo & preseruatjuo amirable de la ssanjdat “admirably preserving and protecting the health”.^[4][5] The sense is “wonderful, excellent”.^[5][10]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th-century poets it means “worthy of wonder”: Santillana calls the Epiphany Texto de admirable glosa, and the cancioneros speak of manjares admirables “splendid dishes”.^[10][5] Autoridades defined it as what deserves admiration, or to be looked at with astonishment or close attention.^[11] The Academy in 1770 also recorded a noun, el Admirable, the motet sung in church when the Holy Sacrament is put away, which begins O admirable Sacramento.^[12] Terreros gave it as the name of two kinds of peach, after French admirable,^[9] and in Mexico it names an ornamental plant, Bryophyllum calycinum.^[13] The current dictionary adds the weaker sense “very good, excellent”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – the General estoria of Alfonso X has the Latin form Admirabilis.^[4]
• 1381 – first record of the Spanish word, amirable, in Estéfano de Sevilla.^[4][5]
• c. 1440 – the date Corominas gives for the word, with admirar and admiración.^[6]
• 1455 – Santillana uses it in his poems.^[10]
• 1564 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines it as worthy of admiration.^[11]
• 1770 – the Academy records the noun el Admirable for a motet to the Holy Sacrament.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin admirabilis.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. admirable; worthy of admiración, wonderful: Su paciencia con los niños es admirable.^[2][1][16]
2. Very good, excellent.^[2]

Related words

• admirar
• admiración
• mirar
• Latin admīrābilis

Usage notes

The form almirable is a vulgarism found in Mexico and many other parts of the Spanish-speaking world.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. admirable
3. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 17
4. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. admirable
5. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. admirable
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mirar
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
9. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 30
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. admirable
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 88
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 74
13. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 49
14. ^ 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. admirable
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 22
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. admirable