caber

Forms

caber (first-person singular present quepo, first-person singular preterite cupe, past participle cabido)^[1] Autoridades notes that the first person present was once cabo, still used by children in its day.^[2] The Asturian of the 19th century had cabo and cabio.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin capiō (“to take, seize; to hold, contain”), through Old Spanish caber.^[4][5][6][1] The sense “to contain, have room for” was already usual in classical Latin, in Cicero and Juvenal, with the container as subject.^[4] The Vulgate already turns the construction round, with the thing contained as subject, perhaps after the Greek verb Ancient Greek χωρέω (khōréō), which is used both ways; this is the modern Spanish construction, found in Berceo.^[4] The sense “to be possible” goes back to an absolute use of the verb in Late Latin, as in Tertullian.^[4]

The same verb is Portuguese caber, Galician caber, Catalan cabre, Occitan caber and Romanian încăpea, all with the intransitive construction.^[4][7][1] The present quepo reflects a metathesis of the Latin first person to /ˈkai̯po/, and the preterite cupe a metathesis of the perfect stem Vulgar Latin *capuī, as in Portuguese caibo and coube.^[1]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from a present stem in -i-, Proto-Italic *kap-i-, from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂p-i- or a non-Indo-European *kap-i- (“to seize”).^[8] Its cognates include Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”), and Wiktionary adds Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift, heave”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the verb in the sense “to fall to someone”: „si desondra ý cabe alguna contra nós” “if any dishonour falls on us there”.^[9][10][5] In Berceo's Vida de San Millán (1235) the verb means “to fit inside”, with the modern intransitive construction: the hollows of the gouged eyes were so large that a walnut would fit in each.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

The transitive Latin construction, with the container as subject, lasted in Spanish until the 17th century: Cervantes writes of half-jars that each held („cabía”) a whole carcass of meat.^[4][12] Berceo still uses it, and the Galician-Portuguese Cantigas even have a transitive sense “to accept, approve”.^[4][13] The sense “to fall to one's share” (si este reyno se viniesse a hazer pedazos, alguno me ha de caber, Lope de Vega) is probably a figurative use of “to take”; from its preterite comes the noun cupo “quota”, in the Academy's dictionary by 1884.^[4][5]

Covarrubias (1611) records no caber de gozo “to be beside oneself with joy”, and caberle a uno la suerte “to be chosen by lot”.^[14] The Academy listed no caber en sí as “to be full of pride” in 1843; today the phrase means “to be overjoyed”.^[15][6] The transitive senses “to hold (a measure)” and “to admit” are now rare, and “to understand” is obsolete.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses caber for “to fall to someone”.^[5][9]
• 1235 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán uses it for “to fit inside”.^[11]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Fuero Juzgo uses it for “to be contained”.^[16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives caber en lugar algo, Latin locus capit aliquid.^[17]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records no caber de gozo.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the irregular forms quepo and cupe.^[2]
• 1884 – the derived noun cupo is in the Academy's dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To fit: to be able to go inside something: Esa maleta no cabe en el coche.^[6][1]
2. (intransitive) To have room to enter or pass through: El sofá no cabe por la escalera.^[6][19]
3. (intransitive) To fall to someone's lot; to belong to someone: Le cupo el honor de abrir la sesión.^[6]
4. (intransitive) To be possible or natural: no cabe duda.^[6][1]
5. (transitive, of a container) To hold a given measure.^[6]
6. (transitive, rare) To admit;^[2][1] (obsolete) to understand;^[2][1] (obsolete, intransitive) to take part in something.^[6]

Word family

• cabida
• cupo

Related words

• captar
• capaz
• ocupar
• cazar
• Latin capiō
• Catalan cabre

Usage notes

Caber is irregular: present quepo, preterite cupe.^[2][1] Set phrases include no cabe más, said of something that has reached its extreme, no caber en sí “to be overjoyed”, and si cabe, used to heighten a comparison.^[6][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 16
3. ^ Rato y Hevia, Apolinar de (1891), Vocabulario de las palabras y frases bables que se hablaron antiguamente y de las que hoy se hablan en el Principado de Asturias, Madrid: Manuel G. Hernández, p. 26
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 710
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caber
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. caber
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. caber
10. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. caber
11. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 569
12. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 9
13. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 197
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 365
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 120
16. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. caber
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 307
18. ^ 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. caber
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caber
20. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 100