soluble

Forms

soluble m or f (masculine and feminine plural solubles)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin solūbilis (“that can be loosed or dissolved”).^[2][3][1][4] Corominas glosses the Latin word as properly “that can be untied”, and treats it under absolver, with the other learned words of the Latin verb, such as disolver, resolver and solución.^[3]

The Latin adjective is post-classical and belongs to solvō (“to loosen, release”).^[5] De Vaan explains the verb as a compound of sē- (“away”) and a verb meaning “to loosen”, luō.^[6] Related forms are French soluble and Italian solubile.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in the poems of Miguel de Barrios (c. 1670–1700), which speak of the concepción soluble of the vast chaos, its dissoluble state.^[8] Corominas's first record is the Diccionario de Autoridades of 1739, which defines the word as what can be untied or dissolved and quotes a medical text on digestion dissolving the most soluble part of food.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The negative insoluble is older in Spanish: Corominas dates it 1438.^[3] Terreros (1786–1793) gives three uses: in geometry of a problem that can be solved, in pharmacy of what can be melted or dissolved, and of a thing that can fall apart.^[7] The chemical sense is frequent from the 1790s, in Luis Proust's work on metallic vitriols and in Cavanilles.^[8] In 1818 Francisco Martínez Marina complains that his censors called him soluble among other insults, in the sense “inconstant”.^[8]

The Academy's dictionaries of 1817 and 1843 define it as what can be untied or dissolved.^[10][11] The 1884 edition gave the Latin etymon and added the figurative sense “that can be resolved”, of a problem.^[12] The DLE keeps both senses, “that can be dissolved” and “that can be resolved”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1670–1700 – Miguel de Barrios writes of the concepción soluble of chaos.^[8]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades, Corominas's first record.^[3][9]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records its uses in geometry and pharmacy.^[7]
• 1791 – Luis Proust uses it of salts dissolving in nitric acid.^[8]
• 1819 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, of a soluble tartar.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the figurative sense “solvable” and the etymology.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That can be dissolved; soluble: La sal es soluble en el agua tibia.^{[2][14][15][1]}
2. That can be resolved or solved: Todavía es una crisis soluble.^[2][14]

Word family

• solubilidad

Related words

• insoluble
• disolver
• solución
• absolver
• Latin solvō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. soluble
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. absolver
4. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 719
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c 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, 522
8. ^ 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. soluble
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 146
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 811
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 675
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 987
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. soluble
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. soluble
15. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. soluble