purgativo

Forms

purgativo (feminine purgativa, masculine plural purgativos, feminine plural purgativas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin pūrgātīvus (“purgative”), a learned word.^[2][1][3] The Latin adjective was formed from pūrgō (“to clean, purge”) with the suffix -īvus, and is recorded only in post-classical medical writers such as Caelius Aurelianus.^[1][4] Corominas lists it among the learned derivatives of purgar, which Spanish took from the same Latin verb.^[5][6]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese purgativo, Catalan purgatiu, French purgatif and Italian purgativo.^[7][8][9][1] Wiktionary reports De Vaan's view that the Latin verb goes back to a compound of a Proto-Italic word for “fire” with agō (“to drive, do”), meaning first “to lead fire about”, and notes that this etymology is disputed.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary of about 1495.^[5][6] In the Americas it is recorded from 1548 in Santo Domingo, where a wild cassia is said to be strongly purgative (es bien purgativa).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has always been chiefly medical, describing a medicine or plant that purges.^[11][2] The Diccionario de Autoridades also records vía purgativa, the term of mystical theology for the first of the stages through which the soul approaches perfection.^[11] Today Moliner treats it as a synonym of purgante, and the medical dictionary DTME as one of laxante.^[12][13]

Timeline

• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario records the word.^[5][6]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[10]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it in English as “that purgeth”.^[14]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it and records the mystical phrase vía purgativa.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin purgativus.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. purgative: that purges or has the power to purge, especially the bowels: una raíz purgativa.^[2][1][12]
2. (medicine) laxative.^[13]
3. (theology) In vía purgativa, the purgative way, the first stage of the mystical life.^[11]

Related words

• purgar
• purgante
• purgatorio
• puro
• Latin pūrgō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, p. s.v. purgativo
3. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 698
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puro
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. purgativo
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. purgatiu
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. purgatif
10. ^ 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. purgativo
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 440
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. purgativo
13. ^ 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. purgativo, -va
14. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 197
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 883