This article aims to reflect on how certain concepts, when they are decontextualized or, even worse, translated, lose their essence. In this case, the meaning traditionally assigned to the word Bildsamkeit, which is translated to educabilidad (educability) and not formabilidad (formability) in Spanish, is called into question. This word refers to the anthropologic capacity of man to transform himself internally through external pedagogic action. This clarification evidences the way pedagogic and historic anthropology has an antecedent in the concept of formability that is rooted in the work of the German Helbart.