potable

Forms

potable m or f (masculine and feminine plural potables)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin pōtābilis (“drinkable”), from pōtō (“to drink”) with the adjective suffix -bilis.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin adjective is post-classical.^[6] The DCECH lists it, with poción, among the learned words of the same Latin root as the word for “cup”, in its article on búcaro.^[7]

The Latin verb is a frequentative of pōtus (“drunk”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₃- (“to drink”); the same root gives pōculum and pōtiō, the source of the Spanish noun for “potion”.^[8][9] The same Latin word is Portuguese potável, French potable and Italian potabile.^[1][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is Enrique de Villena's commentary on the psalm Quoniam videbo (1424), in which a flowing watery substance is made potable “drinkable”.^[12][13] Villena uses the word again in his glosses on the Aeneid (1427–1428), listing it with nadable “swimmable” among the qualities of water.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From the start of the 16th century the word appears in the alchemical phrase oro potable “drinkable gold”, which Fray Ambrosio Montesino uses in 1508 and a text from Santo Domingo in 1517.^[12][14] Autoridades (1737) records dinero or oro potable for ready money passed from hand to hand, and Terreros (1788) says that charlatans sold a tincture as drinkable gold.^[15][16] Agua potable “drinking water” is found in Santo Domingo in 1548.^[14] The colloquial sense “passable, acceptable” is in the Academy's dictionary of 2001 and in the DLE.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1424 – first record, in Enrique de Villena.^[12]
• 1508 – oro potable in a poem by Fray Ambrosio Montesino.^[12]
• 1548 – agua dulce e potable “fresh drinkable water” in a chronicle written in Santo Domingo.^[14]
• 1737 – Autoridades defines it and records oro potable for cash.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin potabilis.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. drinkable, potable: fit to be drunk, especially of water (agua) safe for health.^[18][20][1]
2. (colloquial) Passable, acceptable (aceptable): El vino de la casa era bastante potable.^[18][20]

Word family

• potabilidad
• impotable

Related words

• poción
• pócima
• beber
• Latin pōtō

Usage notes

Oro potable was the name of a preparation of gold dissolved in liquid in alchemy.^[16][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poción
3. ^ 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. potable
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 684
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. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 583
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. potable
13. ^ 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. potable
14. ^ a b c d 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. potable
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. potable
16. ^ 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. 3, 190
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe
18. ^ a b c 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
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 854
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos