Language of Confusion: Able

Able is one of those words that’s tacked onto the ends of other words all the time to make them into something else. Now, I won’t be getting into all of them, because there are hundreds, maybe more if you ignore normal grammatical conventions, but I will mention those that aren’t normally seen without able at the end and even those are numerous enough that this needs two parts. Plus the word itself. I mean, duh.

Able

First showed up in the early fourteenth century, coming from the Old French hable/able and classical Latin habilem/habilis, which means something like fit, handy, or adaptable, a different tense of the word habere, have or hold. That h was silent in the Latin and French versions, so it’s no wonder it was dropped from the English spelling. However, that H is still around in another word descended from habere: habit. And what I learned: able and ability are not related to words with the suffix -able. They actually come from the Latin suffices -abilitas and -abilis, which were basically ways to turn verbs into nouns.

Affable

Showed up in the late fifteenth century from the Old French affable and classical Latin affabilis, approachable. The a- comes from the prefix ad-, meaning to in our friend Latin, and the -ffa- comes from fari, to speak, making it a nounizing of “to speak to”.

Amiable/Amicable

Amiable showed up in the mid-fourteenth century while amicable didn’t show up until the early fifteenth century. Both come from the Late Latin amicabilis, friendly, from the classical Latin word amicus, friend, and amare, love. The reason why we have both words is because amiable comes by way of Old French, which dropped the c, while amicable does not.

Capable

This one’s relatively late, not showing up until the mid-sixteenth century. It comes from the Middle French capable and Late Latin capabilis, able to grasp or hold (and totally not related to habere), and the classical Latin capax, with the same meaning we know it as. It can even be traced further back to the Proto Indo European kap, which means to grasp (if you’re capable, you have a grasp of something). In other words, it’s making a noun out of grasp. Kind of like graspable.

Culpable

An early word, coming around in the late thirteenth century as coupable from the Old French…coupable. I guess we weren’t differentiating ourselves enough. Either way, the word comes from the classical Latin culpabilis, blameworthy, and culpare, to blame, both of which stem from culpa, fault.

Despicable

Showed up in the mid-sixteenth century from the Late Latin despicabilis and classical Latin despicari, despise. That word is a combination of de-, down, and spicare (or specere), to look. I guess that makes it to-look-down-upon-able.

Durable

Showed up in the late fourteenth century from the classical Latin durabilis, lasting, and durare, to last. It’s related to endure. Hm, nothing interesting about this one.

Effable/ineffable

Effable, expressible, showed up in the early seventeenth century and is hardly used today, but it was preceded by ineffable, unspeakable, by over two hundred years and that word is still used…well, sometimes. The former comes from the classical Latin effabilis and effari, to utter. Likewise, the latter comes from ineffabilis, literally unutterable. The in- prefix means opposite of. Effabilis is a pieced together word, too; the e- is from ex-, out, and fari, which I mentioned in the affable entry means speak.

Exorable/inexorable

Yep, another one. Exorable, persuadable, showed up in the late sixteenth century, from the classical Latin exorabilis and exorare, to persuade. Inexorable, unpersuadable, showed up earlier, but only by a couple of decades, from (of course) the classical Latin inexorabilis. Like above, the in- means opposite of, and exorare is a mix of ex- (out) and another word (orare, pray).

Whew, that’s a long post, and there’s still more to come. Yay?

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Dictionary.com

Google Translate

Orbis Latinus

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language