Dana comes through.
-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On
Behalf Of Dana Nutter
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 12:55 AM
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Subject: Re: -able
> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of T. A. McLeay
> > 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.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/habilis