comunicável

Forms

comunicável m or f (plural comunicáveis)^[1] The first record, of 1573, is spelt cõmunicauel, and Cunha records communicavel in 1813.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commūnicābilis (“that can be communicated”), formed from commūnicō (“to share, communicate”) with the suffix -bilis.^[2][1] Nascentes takes it from the Latin word by a semi-learned route.^[4] Cunha, who first finds it in 1813, derives it from French communicable.^[3] Wiktionary also analyses it within Portuguese as comunicar with the suffix -ável.^[1] In Medieval Latin the adjective already meant “sociable, open”.^[5]

The same Latin word is Spanish comunicable and Galician comunicable.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1573, in the spelling cõmunicauel, and gives first the sense “that can be communicated”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Beside the passive sense “that can be passed on”, the word came to describe a person who is open and sociable, and by extension talkative.^[2][7][8] Caldas Aulete quotes Camilo Castelo Branco's Brilhantes do Brasil (edition of 1869) for a comunicável alegria, a joy that spreads to others, and the modern dictionaries give “contagious” as a sense of its own.^[9][2] In law it is said of goods that pass to the other spouse under the property regime of a marriage.^[9]

Timeline

• 1573 – first record, spelt cõmunicauel.^[2]
• 1813 – Cunha's first record, spelt communicavel.^[3]
• 1869 – a comunicável alegria in an edition of Camilo Castelo Branco's Brilhantes do Brasil.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That can be communicated (comunicar) or passed on; communicable: uma ideia dificilmente comunicável.^[2][7][8][1]
2. Open, sociable (sociável), expansive, frank.^{[2][7][8][10][1]}
3. Talkative.^[2]
4. That spreads easily; contagious (contagiante).^[2][9]
5. (law) Transferable to another person, as goods shared between spouses.^[9]

Word family

• comunicabilidade
• comunicavelmente
• incomunicável

Related words

• comunicar
• comunicação
• Latin commūnicābilis
• French communicable
• Spanish comunicable

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. comunicável
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. comunicável
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. comunicável
5. ^ 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. communicabilis
6. ^ 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. comunicable
7. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. comunicável
8. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. comunicável
9. ^ a b c d e Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. comunicável
10. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. comunicável