Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Comments on How did “-able” semantically shift to mean “requiring”?

Post

How did “-able” semantically shift to mean “requiring”?

+6
−3

Etymonline on "-able" doesn't expound the origin of "requiring".

-able

common termination and word-forming element of English adjectives (typically based on verbs) and generally adding a notion of "capable of; allowed; worthy of; requiring; to be ______ed," sometimes "full of, causing," from French -able and directly from Latin -abilis. It is properly -ble, from Latin -bilis (the vowel being generally from the stem ending of the verb being suffixed), and it represents PIE *-tro, a suffix used to form nouns of instrument, cognate with the second syllables of English rudder and saddle (n.).

For example, "payABLE" literally means ABLE to pay. Ability differs from requirement. How did "payable" semantically shift to meaning 1 below?

  1. (of money) required to be paid; due.

  2. Able to be paid.

payables

Debts owed by a business; liabilities.

payable (adj.) on Etymonline

late 14c., paiable, "to be paid, that can be or is to be paid,"
from pay (v.) + -able or from Old French paiable. From late 13c. as a surname, from the Old French word in its other sense, "of good quality."

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

1 comment thread

General comments (2 comments)
General comments
msh210‭ wrote about 4 years ago

I question your premise that "[l]iterally, 'payABLE' means ABLE to pay". Although the -able suffix has that meaning in some words, it more often means "able to be [verb]ed", as in pronounceable, edible, tradable, readable, and many more.

PSTH‭ wrote about 4 years ago

@msh210 You may be correct, but I can ask the same question for "able to be [verb]ed". Ability to be paid doesn't mean requirement to be paid. So "payable" did shift semantically.