comunicable

Forms

comunicable m or f (masculine and feminine plural comunicables)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commūnicābilis (“that can be shared or communicated”).^[2][1][3] Wiktionary notes that by its form it can also be read as comunicar with the suffix -able.^[1] Corominas dates the verb to 1438 and calls it a learned word taken from commūnicō (“to share”).^[4] That verb is from commūnis (“common, shared”).^[5][1] The Latin adjective is recorded in medieval texts in the sense “sociable, open”.^[6] The same Latin word gave Portuguese comunicável, recorded from 1573.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Enrique de Villena's Los doze trabajos de Hércules (1417) speaks of a fruto teologico comunjcable, a theological fruit that can be shared.^[8][3] In his glosses on the Eneid (1427–1428) Villena contrasts God's incomunicable knowledge with a universal knowledge that is comunicable, imparted to others.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Fifteenth-century songbooks use it of a good that grows by being shared: what does not lessen by giving deue ser comunicable “should be shared”.^[8] Autoridades gave the sense “that can be joined or passed on to another”, as fire or contagion, and a second sense “sociable, affable”, quoting a translation of Santillana's Proverbios.^[9][10] A text of 1548 from Santo Domingo calls fire comunicable for human life.^[11]

Terreros noted that the Latin communicabilis was not good classical Latin.^[12] The Academy's definitions have changed little since the 19th century: what can be communicated or deserves to be, and of a person, sociable.^[13][2] Moliner and Vox describe the first sense today as “able to be passed on to others”, as an experience or an emotion.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – an Aragonese chronicle of Juan Fernández de Heredia's scriptorium uses the word.^[16]
• 1417 – Enrique de Villena, Los doze trabajos de Hércules.^[8][3]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary renders incommunicabilis as lo no comunicable.^[3]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives the senses “that can be passed on” and “sociable”.^[9]
• 1869 – the Academy defines it as what can be communicated or deserves to be.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That can be communicated (comunicar) or passed on, or that deserves to be; communicable: Sus recuerdos de la guerra no eran comunicables.^[2][14][1]
2. Of a person: sociable, easy to deal with, approachable (tratable).^[2][14]

Related words

• comunicar
• comunicativo
• incomunicable
• común

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. comunicable
3. ^ a b c d 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. comunicable
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. común
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. commūnicō
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. communicabilis
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. comunicável
8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. comunicable
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 465
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. comunicable
11. ^ 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. comunicable
12. ^ 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, 478
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 193
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comunicable
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. comunicable
16. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. comunicable