médico

Forms

médico m or f by sense (plural médicos, feminine médica, feminine plural médicas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin medicus (“physician, doctor”), a learned word in Spanish.^[2][3][4][1] García de Diego calls the Castilian form a learned word, beside the inherited outcomes of the Latin noun in the other Ibero-Romance languages.^[5] The Latin noun comes from medeor (“to heal, cure”) with the suffix -icus.^[6][3][1] Prósper rejects this analysis, because that suffix does not normally attach to verb stems, and takes the noun as a thematised form of Proto-Italic *meddiks.^[1]

This verb continues Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”); de Vaan explains “heal” as a shift from “measure” to “distribute a cure”, and lists among its cognates Ancient Greek μέδομαι (médomai, “to care for”) and Old English metan (“to measure”).^[7]

In the Middle Ages the usual word for a doctor was físico, from the 13th to the 15th century, and Old Spanish also had mege, metge and menge, which Corominas takes from Catalan.^[2] The REW likewise derives menje from Catalan metge, and lists Italian medico and Occitan metge as the inherited outcomes elsewhere.^[8] García de Diego records the first of these in old Aragonese and in the Castilian Fuero Juzgo, and old Aragonese miege.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Latin–Spanish vocabulary of Alfonso de Palencia, of 1490, followed by Nebrija, where the word names the physician.^[2][3] He thinks that earlier examples could be found, as Autoridades quotes the word only from the 16th century on.^[2] The DTME dates the word in Spanish from 1381.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, “medical”, appears in 1555 in the work of Andrés Laguna.^[2][3] In the 13th century the General estoria of Alfonso X explains that the fourth finger is called medico in Latin, that is, “healer”, because physicians mix their medicines with it.^[10] Domínguez still recorded this name of the ring finger in 1846.^[11]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 lists the adjective first and the noun second, with médico de apelación for the doctor called in for consultations and grave cases, médico de cabecera for the one who attends the patient regularly, médico espiritual for a person who guides another's conscience, and the proverb médicos de Valencia, haldas largas y poca ciencia.^[12] In 1869 the Academy added a second adjective, “of the Medes”.^[13] The DLE still lists médica in the dated sense “doctor's wife”.^[4]

In rural Paraguay and northwestern Argentina, and in Puerto Rico, the word also names a folk healer.^[14][15] In New Mexico Spanish médico is an herb healer, often also a masseur.^[16] The word has passed into Tagalog as mediko.^[1]

Timeline

• 1272–1275 – the General estoria explains the Latin name medico of the ring finger.^[10]
• 1381 – the first date the DTME gives for the word in Spanish.^[9]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary uses médico for the physician.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the word.^[2]
• 1521 – first record of protomédico.^[3]
• 1537 – the first records from the Americas, in Lima and Cartagena.^[15]
• 1555 – first use as an adjective, “medical”, by Laguna.^[2][3]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary gives the adjective, the noun and the phrases médico de cabecera and médico espiritual.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense “of the Medes”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. medical: of or relating to medicine: un reconocimiento médico.^[4][1]

Noun

1. A doctor or physician: a person legally qualified to practise medicine: Llamaron al médico de madrugada.^[4][1][17]
2. (feminine, colloquial, dated) The doctor's wife.^[4]
3. (Paraguay, northwestern Argentina, rural) A folk healer, a curandero.^[14]

Word family

• médica
• medicar
• medicastro
• medicucho
• mediquillo
• protomédico

Related words

• medicamento
• medicina
• remedio
• meditar
• físico
• Latin medicus
• Catalan metge

Usage notes

Médico de cabecera or médico de familia is the doctor who regularly attends a person or family, and médico forense the doctor attached to a court.^[4][17] For a woman both la médica and la médico are used: Moliner notes the tendency to say médico of women, especially after ser, while Vox recommends only la médica and the DTME calls la médico improper.^[17][18][9] A separate adjective médico “Median, of the Medes” (las guerras médicas) comes from Mēdicus, from Ancient Greek Μηδικός (Mēdikós).^[17][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 11
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. médico
4. ^ 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. médico
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. medicus
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. medicus
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. medeor
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. medicus
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. médico
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. médico
11. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1171
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 564
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 499
14. ^ 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. médico
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. médico
16. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 129
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. médico
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. médico