imposible

Forms

imposible m or f (masculine and feminine plural imposibles)^[1] Medieval spellings include jnposyble, inposible and jmpossible;^[2][3][4] Covarrubias and Autoridades still write impossible.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impossibilis (“impossible”), one of the learned words of the family of poder.^[5][6][7][1] The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and possibilis (“possible”), which in turn is formed from Latin possum (“to be able”) + -bilis.^[8][9][10] The Diccionario de Autoridades explained it as a Spanish compound of the negative prefix and posible.^[4]

Corominas dates the word to 1438, in the Corbacho, earlier than the 1495 he gives for the simple adjective.^[6][5] The DEMel and the CDH have earlier records, in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas and in a text of 1293.^[11][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel gives the singular and the plural from Alfonso X's Siete Partidas (1256–1265).^[11] The earliest CDH hit is in the Castigos of 1293, quoting Saint Gregory: jnposyble [cosa] es que dios non sea misericordioso “it is impossible that God should not be merciful”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant “that cannot be or be done”.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) notes that it is sometimes used for something merely very difficult, and the Academy's dictionary of 1869 adds the noun use, as in “to ask for an impossible thing”.^[3][12] The sense “unbearable, intolerable”, said of a person, was recorded by Alemany in 1917; the Academy's 1884 edition added the rhetorical figure.^[13][14] In Chile and parts of the Americas it also means “very dirty, untidy”.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1256–1265 – Alfonso X's Siete Partidas have imposible and imposibles.^[11]
• 1293 – the Castigos write jnposyble.^[2]
• 1438 – the first record according to Corominas, in the Corbacho.^[6][5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario has impossible, “what cannot be”, with Latin impossibilis.^[17]
• 1532 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sense “very difficult”.^[3]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records imposible de toda imposibilidad.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the etymology and the rhetorical figure.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. impossible: that cannot be, happen or be done.^[7][1]
2. Extremely difficult.^[7][3]
3. Of a person: unbearable, intractable, tiresome: Con el calor, los niños se ponen imposibles.^[7][20]
4. (Chile, Argentina; colloquial) Dirty, slovenly; of a place, untidy.^[16][15]

Noun

1. Something impossible or extremely difficult: Lo que me pides es un imposible.^[7][20]
2. (rhetoric) A figure that asserts that something impossible will happen before something else does or does not.^[7][14]
3. (Mexico) A cake of chocolate sponge and flan.^[16]

Word family

• imposiblemente

Related words

• imposibilidad
• imposibilitar
• posible
• poder
• Latin impossibilis

Usage notes

Hacer los imposibles means to try every possible means to get something.^[21][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. imposible
3. ^ a b c d e Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1040
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 229
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 588
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poder
7. ^ 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. imposible
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. impossibilis
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. possibilis
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. imposible
11. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. imposible
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 427
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 932
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 587
15. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 478
16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. imposible
17. ^ 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. imposible
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. imposible
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 486
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. imposible
21. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. imposible
22. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 605