indicativo

Forms

indicativo (feminine indicativa, masculine plural indicativos, feminine plural indicativas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin indicātīvus (“indicative”), a post-classical term of the grammarians Diomedes and Priscian.^[2][3][4] In grammar the Latin word qualified modus (“mood”), the mood so called because it merely shows or indicates the facts.^[5] Wiktionary analyses it as indicō (“to point out, show”) with the suffix -īvus, a calque of Ancient Greek ὁριστική (horistikḗ); the verb itself is from index (“pointer; forefinger”).^[1] Corominas lists the adjective among the learned derivatives under índice, beside indicar, a verb that became frequent only from the early 18th century.^[6]

The same Latin word is Catalan indicatiu, Portuguese indicativo (1540), French indicatif and Italian indicativo.^[7][8][1] The French word is recorded in its general sense from the 13th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the HSMS texts is in Nebrija's Gramática castellana and his Latin–Spanish dictionary, both of 1492.^[10] The sense was grammatical, the indicative mood.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades in 1734 gave both senses: the general one, “what indicates or can indicate something”, and the grammatical one, the first mood of the verb, which shows an action in its present, past and future tenses; it quotes Patón's list of the four common moods, indicativo, imperativo, conjuntivo, infinitivo.^[11] Terreros added the columna indicativa set up on some coasts to mark the height of the tides.^[12] The Academy's 1817 edition described the mood as the one that simply states things, as in yo soy, tú amas.^[13] The 1899 edition noted the use of the word as a noun.^[14]

The first record from the Americas, from Lima in 1791, uses the general sense: the colours of hills that indicate metal veins.^[15] Modern Spanish also uses the noun for a sign or code that identifies something, such as the call sign of a radio station, and in Colombia and Paraguay for the dialling code of a telephone area.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1492 – Nebrija uses the word in his Gramática castellana.^[10]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the general and the grammatical senses.^[11]
• 1786 – Terreros records the columna indicativa of tides.^[12]
• 1791 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin indicativus.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That indicates (indicar) or serves to indicate: La fiebre alta es indicativa de una infección.^[2][19][1]

Noun

1. (grammar) The indicative mood (modo), used for statements presented as real.^[2][1]
2. (grammar) A verb form in the indicative.^[2]
3. A sign or code that identifies something, such as the call sign of a station.^[16]
4. (Colombia, Paraguay) A dialling code.^[17]

Related words

• indicar
• índice
• indicio
• Latin indicātīvus

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. indicativo
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. indicativo
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. indicativo
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 447
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. indicatiu
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. indicativo
9. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
10. ^ a b c 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. indicativo
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 251
12. ^ a b 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. 2, 340
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 490
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 553
15. ^ 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. indicativo
16. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. indicativo
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. indicativo
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 592
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. indicativo