The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) recognizes three meanings of the term imponderable . In the first two meanings, the concept is used as an adjective to describe that which cannot be weighed or that exceeds any type of weighting .
In the field of physics, it was formerly believed that there was an invisible fluid that filled space and that, when vibrating, transmitted heat, light and other forms of energy. According to this hypothesis, said fluid - baptized as ether - was imponderable (there was no way to weigh or quantify it).
The most common use of the notion, however, is linked to what cannot be foreseen or whose effects are impossible to calculate . The imponderable, in this framework, is unpredictable .
For example: “Unless something unforeseen happens, this weekend we will go to rest in a cabin in the mountains” , “The coach has already defined who will be the players who will take the field in the team's debut in the Copa del Rey. World, although there can always be an unforeseen event that forces plans to be modified,” “The closure of the company was imponderable to us since there was no alarm signal.”
Suppose a family is preparing to go on vacation. The group already has tickets to fly from their city of residence to a tourist destination abroad. While these people are at the airport waiting for the takeoff time, the airport terminal workers suddenly go on strike and refuse to carry out the procedures so that the passengers can board. The strike was declared suddenly, without any type of notice. Therefore, for the family in question it is an imponderable event that, at least momentarily, prevents them from traveling.
The term imponderable is not very common in everyday speech, and for this reason it can be very useful to refer to its synonyms to more fully understand its meaning and nuances. In this particular case, we can find two large groups, which are presented below: on the one hand there are inestimable, immeasurable, unbeatable, inappreciable and insurmountable ; On the other hand, we have chance, unpredictability, eventualities, contingencies and risks . Regarding antonyms, the most common of them is foresight .
At first glance, in the second list of synonyms we can notice a rather particular detail: there are several nouns, instead of adjectives. Far from being an error, this peculiarity responds to the fact that the term imponderable itself can act as an adjective (when we use it to describe those things that we cannot weigh or that exceed any weight) or as a noun (in cases in which denotes a situation that is impossible to foresee or that has inestimable consequences ).
If we look again at two of the examples presented in the previous paragraphs, we can notice cases in which the term is used with its substantive function : when talking about the World Cup and the definition of the squad, which will only change if a dispute arises. imponderable in the situation of the family that cannot travel due to an unforeseen event , more precisely the sudden strike by airport workers.
The relationship between the two main meanings of this word may seem difficult to establish at first; However, if we think that something that cannot be weighed is also invisible or at least imperceptible to humans, we can conclude that in the same way it will be impossible to predict. That said, it is understandable that there are not many antonyms, since in general things that are not imponderable are simply " normal ."