-ble

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | 616 words | Copyright

-ble — (O)F. — L. -bilis, adj. suffix denoting tendency, fitness, ability, or capability of doing or being something; added to vb. -stems, as flēbilis lamentable, tearful. f. flēre weep; mōbilis easily moved. MOBILE; stabilis steadfast, STABLE2; with vb.-stems in a, i, and u it combined to form the compound suffixes repr. in Eng. by -ABLE, -IBLE, and -uble, of which the first (the only one in living use) is by far the most common, and capable of being compounded with any verb; the last is repr. only in soluble, voluble. The corr. abstract nouns end in -bility and advs. in -bly.

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T. F. HOAD. "-ble." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "-ble." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-ble.html

T. F. HOAD. "-ble." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-ble.html

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