visibilidad

Forms

visibilidad f (plural visibilidades)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin vīsibilitās (“visibility”), the abstract noun of vīsibilis (“visible”).^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it under ver, beside visible, which Spanish took from the Latin adjective about 1440.^[4] The same Latin noun gave Portuguese visibilidade, Catalan visibilitat, French visibilité and Italian visibilità.^[5][6][7]

The Latin noun, first recorded in Tertullian, is formed from the adjective, which comes from videō (“to see”) with the suffix -bilis.^[3][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is El Tostado's Libro de las paradojas (1437, in a 15th-century copy), in a scholastic passage on sight: colour is visible of itself and needs nothing else to give it visibilidad.^[9][10] The first hit without a later copy is Fernando Mejía's Nobiliario vero (1477–1485), where it refers to the visible human nature of the Redeemer.^[9]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the word belonged to philosophy, optics and theology: Autoridades (1739) defines it as the capacity of a thing to be seen, quoting Palomino on colour made visible by light, and Feijoo uses it of the planets in the 1740s and 1750s.^[11][9] In the 19th century the dictionaries also record a theological use, the visibility of the Church.^[12] The meteorological sense, the distance at which objects can be seen in given weather, is a later addition, now the DLE's second sense, and modern dictionaries also use it for the ability to see in a place or situation.^[2][13][14]

Timeline

• 1437 – El Tostado, Libro de las paradojas (in a 15th-century copy).^[9]
• 1477–1485 – Fernando Mejía, Nobiliario vero.^[9]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as the aptitude of a thing to be seen.^[11]
• 1791 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology and the definition “quality of being visible”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. visibility: the quality of being visible.^[2][1]
2. (meteorology) The greater or lesser distance at which objects can be seen, depending on the weather: Con la niebla, la visibilidad bajó a cincuenta metros.^[2][14]

Related words

• visible
• ver
• visión
• Latin vīsibilis

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. visibilidad
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vīsibilitas
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 830
5. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. visibilidade
6. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. visibilitat
7. ^ 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, 810
8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. visibilitas
9. ^ 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. visibilidad
10. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. visibilidad
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 498
12. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 721
13. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. visibilidad
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. visibilidad
15. ^ 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. visibilidad
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1024