risible

Forms

risible m or f (masculine and feminine plural risibles)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin rīsibilis (“able to laugh”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The adjective is formed from Latin rīdeō (“to laugh”) + -bilis, and is first found in Martianus Capella.^[1][4] De Vaan finds no good Indo-European etymology for the Latin verb.^[5] The same Latin word is French risible and Italian risibile.^[6][7]

Corominas lists the adjective among the learned words of the family of reír, beside the inherited risa.^[2] Terreros in the 18th century called the Latin adjective a barbarous word.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is Fray Vicente de Burgos's 1494 translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, with the spelling resible: a man and his ability to laugh are given as properties that can be said of one another, the scholastic sense “able to laugh”.^[8] Corominas and Segura Munguía date the word only from Autoridades, 1737.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word belonged to the philosophy of man: Guevara (1529–1531) calls man by nature comunicable, sociable y risible, and Pineda (1589) says that only man is risible.^[8] The sense “laughable” appears at the same time: González de Mendoza (1585–1586) describes one of the Chinese laws as bien risible “quite laughable”.^[8]

Autoridades gave both senses, first the capacity of man to laugh and then what causes or deserves laughter, glossing the second with Latin ridiculus.^[9] The DLE keeps that order, while Moliner puts “laughable, ridiculous” first, the sense in common use today.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1494 – Fray Vicente de Burgos writes resible in his translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[8]
• 1529–1531 – Guevara's Reloj de príncipes calls man risible.^[8]
• 1585–1586 – González de Mendoza uses it in the sense “laughable”.^[8]
• 1737 – Autoridades records both senses, the DCECH's first record.^[9][2]
• 1799 – the first record from the Americas, in Uruguay.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin risibilis.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to laugh (reír).^[3][10]
2. laughable, ridiculous (ridículo): causing laughter or deserving it: Le ofrecieron un sueldo risible.^[3][10][1]

Related words

• reír
• risa
• risibilidad
• ridículo
• Latin rīdeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 857
3. ^ a b c d 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. risible
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ 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, 380
7. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 669
8. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. risible
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 624
10. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. risible
11. ^ 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. risible
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 936