Re: -able
| From: | Scotto Hlad <scott.hlad@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 3:01 |
|---|
You are correct about the good dictionary. As I am such a swell guy <TIC> I
leant mine to someone a few years ago and he packed up and moved with it. I
have yet to replace it though I now see that I could get a used copy of it
on Ebay for next to nothing.
Thanks for your help.
-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On
Behalf Of T. A. McLeay
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 12:01 AM
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Subject: Re: -able
MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM wrote:
> In a message dated 4/13/2008 23:47:47 PM Central Daylight Time,
> scott.hlad@TELUS.NET writes:
>
>
>> I'm looking for the derivation of the suffix "-able" which we have in
>> English which appears the same in French and as "-avel" in Portugese.
>> Any ideas?
>> Scotto
>>
>
> My first guess is that it's from Latin "-abilis".
Which in turn is -a:- + -bilis; the -a:- could also have been -i- (hence
"-ible" in "impossible") or not included, hence "soluble" from "solve"
(La. solu:-bilis and solvere, noting Classical Latin -v- was /w/, and it is
for whatever reason one of my favorite pairs of words in English).
Any decent dictionary should tell you this much.
--
Tristan.
Reply