caótico

Forms

caótico (feminine caótica, masculine plural caóticos, feminine plural caóticas)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from French chaotique, the adjective of caos.^[2][3] Corominas thinks the word was coined in France, where the ⟨t⟩ of the derivative is best explained, although it is recorded first in Leibniz in 1702, then in the Spanish writer Tosca in 1709 and in the English lexicographer Bailey in 1731, while the French word is attested only from 1845; he takes the French record to be incomplete.^[2][3] The French word is formed from chaos with the suffix -ique.^[1] Older Spanish etymologists derived it simply from the Spanish noun.^[4]

The Spanish noun is a learned borrowing, recorded from the early 15th century, of Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “abyss”), the immense dark space that was thought to have existed before the creation of the world.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas gives the first Spanish record in Tosca in 1709, for “relating to chaos”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The Academy took the adjective into its dictionary in 1884 in the sense “belonging or relating to chaos”, with the note that it was a word of recent use; the note was dropped in 1899.^[5][6] Domínguez had already defined it in 1846 as “concerning chaos, proper to it”, and Barcia and Echegaray labelled it a learned word.^[7][4] The everyday sense “utterly disorderly, confused” is the main one today, applied to traffic, the economy or a room; in Latin America it is recorded from 1938, in Ecuador.^[8][9][10] In physics and mathematics it describes systems that behave unpredictably although they are deterministic.^[9][11]

Timeline

• 1709 – first Spanish record, in Tosca.^[2][3]
• 1846 – Domínguez defines it as “relating to chaos”.^[7]
• 1884 – first in the Academy's dictionary, marked as a word of recent use.^[5]
• 1938 – first record from the Americas, in Ecuador.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging or relating to chaos (caos).^[12][8]
2. chaotic, utterly disorderly and confused: Aquella mañana el aeropuerto estaba caótico.^[8][9][1]
3. (physics, mathematics) Of a system (sistema): behaving in an apparently random, unpredictable way.^[9][11]

Related words

• caos
• French chaotique
• Latin chaos

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 827
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caos
4. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 97
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 204
6. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 189
7. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 332
8. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caótico
9. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. caótico
10. ^ 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. caótico
11. ^ a b 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. caos
12. ^ 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. caótico