organismo

Forms

organismo m (plural organismos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English organism, which Corominas dates in English to 1664.^[2][3][1][4] The English word is formed from organ, from Latin organum, with the suffix -ism.^[4] Corominas treats it under órgano, which is taken from the same Latin word, “tool, musical instrument”, from Ancient Greek ὄργανον (órganon, “tool, instrument, bodily organ”), a derivative of ἔργον (érgon, “work”).^[5][2]

The DTME instead derives it from Medieval Latin organismus, made of the Greek elements for “organ” and the suffix -ισμός (-ismós); it dates the biological term to 1706 and says it had earlier meant a set of voices.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in Donoso Cortés's Lecciones de derecho político (1836–37), already in a social sense: old states that either mutilated man to keep society or relajaron el organismo social “loosened the social organism” to respect the individual.^[7] The bodily sense follows in Alberdi (1844–51), whose hero's mind is disturbed by el desorden de su organismo.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Domínguez (1846) defines it in physiology as the set of laws that govern the animal economy, and the Academy's dictionary first admits it in 1869 as the set of organs that make up the body of animals or plants.^[8][9] The 1884 edition adds the figurative set of laws and customs that rule a social body, and that of 1899 a set of offices forming an institution; the BDELC's date, 1884, is that of this edition.^[10][11][2] Neither the Academy's 1899 edition nor Alemany (1917) lists the sense “living being”, which the DLE gives second; today the commonest uses are the body (el organismo humano) and a public or private body with administrative functions, as in organismo internacional.^[3][12][6]

Timeline

• 1836–37 – Donoso Cortés writes of el organismo social.^[7]
• 1846 – Domínguez records it as a term of physiology.^[8]
• 1866 – the first record from the Americas, in Bogotá: el organismo político de la parroquia.^[13]
• 1869 – first in the Academy's dictionary, for the organs of an animal or plant body.^[9]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “set of offices forming an institution”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The set of organs of an animal or plant body and the laws by which it works; the body: El tabaco daña el organismo.^[3][14]
2. A living being, an organism: organismos unicelulares.^[3][1]
3. (figurative) The set of laws, uses and customs that govern a body or social institution.^[3]
4. A public or private body or organization, or the set of offices that form it: un organismo del Estado.^[3][12][1]

Word family

• microorganismo

Related words

• organizar
• órgano
• orgánico
• English organism

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. órgano
3. ^ 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. organismo
4. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 510
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 296
6. ^ 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. organismo
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. organismo
8. ^ a b 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, 1296
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 556
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 765
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 718
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. organismo
13. ^ 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. organismo
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. organismo