gramatical

Forms

gramatical m or f (masculine and feminine plural gramaticales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin grammaticālis (“of grammar”).^[2][1][3] Lewis & Short cite the Latin adjective from Sidonius Apollinaris.^[4] It is formed from grammatica (“grammar, philology”) with the suffix -ālis, and goes back through grammaticus to Ancient Greek γραμματικός (grammatikós).^[1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of gramático, beside gramática, recorded from about 1240.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Spanish record in the HSMS archive is Juan Fernández de Heredia's Crónica de los emperadores, in a manuscript of 1393 made at Avignon.^[6] The CDH's first hit is a Latin will of 1296 (libros gramaticales); its first Spanish one is Enrique de Villena's glosses on the Aeneid (1427–1428), where a razón gramatical, a figure of grammar, allows a plural for a singular.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word appears in phrases such as regla gramatical (the Tostado, 1437) and gramatical interpretación (Pedro Marín, after 1455); Nebrija's vocabulary of 1495 glosses it cosa de gramatica, Latin grammaticus.^[7] Autoridades (1734) defined it as what belongs to grammar, with Latin grammaticalis.^[8] The Academy's edition of 1884 was the first to give the etymology.^[9] By 2001 it had added the sense “conforming to the rules of grammar”, and the DLE now also has a linguistic sense, of what expresses grammatical rather than lexical content.^[10][2] The opposite of the second sense is agramatical.^[11]

Timeline

• 1296 – libros gramaticales in a will written in Latin.^[7]
• 1393 – Heredia's Crónica de los emperadores.^[6]
• 1427–1428 – Villena's glosses on the Aeneid speak of a razón gramatical.^[7]
• 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin vocabulary records it.^[7]
• 1716 – first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[12]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines it.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin grammaticalis.^[9]
• 2001 – the Academy's 22nd edition has the sense “grammatically correct”.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to grammar (gramática).^[2][1]
2. Conforming to the rules of grammar: Esta frase no es gramatical.^[2][1]
3. (linguistics) Expressing grammatical content or concepts, as opposed to lexical ones (léxico).^[2]

Word family

• gramaticalidad
• gramaticalmente
• agramatical

Related words

• gramática

Usage notes

Common phrases are categoría gramatical “part of speech” and accidente gramatical “grammatical inflection”.^[2][1][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. gramatical
3. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. grammaticalis
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gramático
6. ^ a b 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. gramatical
7. ^ 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. gramatical
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 71
9. ^ 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. 538
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. gramatical
11. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. gramatical
12. ^ 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. gramatical
13. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gramatical