actionable

Etymology

It is formed from English action + -able,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from the legal sense of action, a lawsuit.^[5][7] Action is from Anglo-Norman accioun, from Old French accion (“action; lawsuit”), from Latin āctiō (“a doing; lawsuit”),^[3] from agō (“to do, drive”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Giving cause for legal action: before 1601, in W. Lambarde's Archion, published in 1635.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dated the word to 1591,^[8][9] and Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "that which admits an action in law to be brought against it; punishable".^[7] In Cumberland dialect an actionable horse or pony was one with good action, an agile one.^[10] The newer sense, able to be acted on or put into practice, is recorded from 1913, in C. Frederick's The New Housekeeping;^[2] Merriam-Webster labels it chiefly American,^[5] and it is typical of phrases such as actionable information.^[5][9]

Timeline

• before 1601 – giving cause for legal action.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED dates it to 1591.^[8]
• 1913 – able to be acted on; useful, practical.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (law) Giving grounds for a lawsuit or other legal action: The newspaper's false claims were actionable.^[11][5][2]
2. (chiefly US) Able to be acted on or used as a basis for decisions: The survey gave the managers actionable feedback.^[5][2]

Word family

• actionably
• actionability
• nonactionable
• unactionable

Related words

• action
• act
• agent

Usage notes

Grammarphobia, in 2006, still found the business sense "capable of being acted on" in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate but not in the OED or the American Heritage Dictionary, and called it nonstandard.^[12] The revised OED now records it, from 1913.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "An “actionable” usage", 6 December 2006