| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| -able, -ible (suffixes) |
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| The only difficulty involves the spelling of the two unstressed vowels: because they’re usually pronounced uh, it is impossible to tell from the sound which of these variant suffixes to tack on in writing. Both are derived from the Latin habilis, meaning “able.” We got the -able ending chiefly from the many words we borrowed from French, especially during the Middle English period, and then used it to turn English words (mainly verbs) into adjectives, as in lovable, “easy to love” or “inspiring love,” or drinkable, “fit for drinking.” But we also borrowed many Latin words with the suffix already attached, and these typically were spelled -ible. As a result, we have many -able words and many -ible words, plus a few with variant spellings (e.g., collectable/collectible, extendable/extendible, gullable/gullible, includable/includible, processable/processible). But in passible (a rare word meaning “able to feel or suffer”) and passable (“can be traveled or crossed” or “tolerable”) and impassible/impassable, the spelling of the suffix marks a semantic difference: these are not variant spellings, but different words with different meanings. In the end, a dictionary is your only sure guide. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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