polisemica

Polisemia, and the feminine form polisémica in languages such as Italian or Spanish, describes a lexical item that has more than one related meaning. The adjective polisémico/a is used to describe such words, while the English equivalents are polysemous or polyseme. By contrast, words with unrelated meanings are described as homonyms.

Etymology and scope: The term derives from Greek polys “many” and sema “sign.” In lexical semantics, polisemia concerns senses that are historically or semantically connected, often through metaphor or extension. If the senses are not related at all, the more appropriate label is homonymy.

Distinguishing polysemy from related phenomena: Polysemy differs from homonymy in the degree of semantic relatedness among senses. Polysemous senses share a core concept and typically evolve through semantic extension. Homonyms may originate from distinct etymological roots and lack a common underlying idea.

Examples: The word mouth can denote the opening of the face and the opening of a river or cave; these senses are linked by the general notion of an opening. The English word bank is often discussed in terms of homonymy because its senses (financial institution and riverbank) are not semantically related beyond the surface form. In other cases, terms like head (top of the body, leader, or source) reflect polysemy through metaphorical extension from a core idea of prominence or position.

See also: polysemy, semantic extension, lexical semantics, homonymy.