inhibir

Forms

inhibir (first-person singular present inhibo, first-person singular preterite inhibí, past participle inhibido)^[1] 15th- and 16th-century documents often write it ynibir or inibir, without the ⟨h⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin inhibeō (“to hold back, restrain”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin verb is formed in- and habeō (“to have, hold”).^[7][1][8] In classical Latin it meant “to restrain, check”, and also “to bring authority or punishment to bear on someone”.^[9][7] Medieval Latin used it for “to forbid”.^[10][11] Corominas groups it with the other learned compounds of the same verb, prohibir, exhibir and cohibir.^[5]

The same Latin verb gave French inhiber (first inhibir, 1355), Portuguese inibir, Catalan inhibir and Italian inibire.^{[11][12][13][1]} Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[14]

Corominas first found it in 1597, in Castillo de Bobadilla, and notes that Covarrubias did not have it.^[5][6] DICCA-XV has a record from 1452, and the CDH has it in a Zaragoza ordinance of 1414 and in Castilian legal documents from 1434 on.^[15][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The early records are legal: an Aragonese ordinance for Zaragoza of 1414 has the participle persona inhibida.^[2] In Castilian documents of 1434 the alcaldes of the Hermandad could not ynibir “stay, stop” a sentence and order of Pero Sarmiento.^[2] A memorial of 1484 on the Inquisition asks Rome for power de ynibir a qualesquier jueses “to bar any judges” from cases.^[2]

Semantic evolution

For three centuries the word belonged to the courts: the act of barring a judge from a case.^[2][16] In the Americas it is recorded in Santo Domingo in 1530 and in New Granada in 1539, where a judge declared himself inhibido in a case.^[3] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the general sense “to hold back or prevent another from doing something”, with Quevedo's El dinero inhibe en la justicia el escarmiento “money prevents punishment in the courts”, and the legal sense.^[16] The Academy's dictionaries of 1869 and 1884 kept only the legal sense.^[17][18] The modern dictionaries add the medical sense, the temporary suspension of a function of the body, and the psychological one of holding back one's own impulses and faculties;^[4][19]^(DTME 2011|s.v. inhibir Moliner marks “to forbid” as archaic.^[4][19][20] The reflexive inhibirse “to stay out of a matter” is now common.^[4][19]

Timeline

• 1414 – the participle inhibida in an ordinance given to Zaragoza by Ferdinand I.^[2]
• 1434 – ynibir in Castilian court records, the first record of the verb.^[2]
• 1452 – DICCA-XV's first date; it reports the CORDE's 1455.^[15]
• 1530 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[3]
• 1597 – Corominas's first record, in Castillo de Bobadilla, with the noun inhibición.^[5][6]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the general and the legal sense.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, Latin inhibere.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To restrain or repress the use of faculties or habits; to make someone feel held back: La presencia del jefe la inhibía.^[4][19]
2. To forbid, hinder or prevent.^[4][19]
3. (medicine) To suspend a function or activity of the body for a time by a suitable stimulus: Este fármaco inhibe la secreción gástrica.^[4][20]
4. (reflexive) To abstain (abstenerse), refrain from acting or from taking part in a matter.^[4][19]
5. (law, reflexive) Of a judge: to declare oneself not competent in a case;^[4][21][19] (transitive) to bar a judge from hearing it.^[4][21][19]

Word family

• inhibición
• inhibitorio

Related words

• prohibir
• exhibir
• cohibir
• haber
• Latin inhibeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. inhibir
3. ^ a b c 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. inhibir
4. ^ 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. inhibir
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 659
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. exhibir
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1893
13. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. inhibir
14. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. inibir
15. ^ a b 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. inhibir
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 272
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 434
18. ^ 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. 598
19. ^ a b c d e f g h Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. inhibir
20. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. inhibir
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. inhibir