changeable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chaungeable, also changeable,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman chaungeable, also chaungable,^[3][4] and Old French changeable (“inconstant”).^[5][6][7] The French adjective is formed from changier (“to alter, exchange”) and -able,^[3][5][7] the verb being from Late Latin cambiō (“to barter, exchange”),^[5] which is held to be of Celtic origin, from Proto-Indo-European *kemb- (“to bend, crook”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people, their thoughts or their fortune: likely to change, fickle: before 1275, in a lyric printed in C. Brown's English Lyrics of 13th Century.^[3] Etymonline dates the sense "unstable, inconstant, unreliable" to the mid-13th century,^[5] and Dictionary.com gives 1200–50.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The fickleness came first, and it was already there in French, where the adjective meant "inconstant" from 1170;^[3] the Anglo-Norman word, recorded from about 1230, also covered what could be altered.^[4] In English the sense "subject to variation" follows in the late 14th century:^[5][3] Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus (before 1398) calls the pulse of pregnant women variable and chaungeable.^[2] Chaucer has the word three times, for "changeable, impermanent".^[9] The sense "able to be altered by someone" is recorded from 1461, in the Paston letters.^[3] From about 1450 it also described fabrics such as silk and taffeta that alter in colour with the angle of view,^[3] which is the use Johnson (1755) illustrated from Twelfth Night, with changeable taffata, beside "fickle" and "possible to be changed".^[10] The noun meant such a fabric from 1552, now rarely,^[3] and a person or thing subject to change since 1645, now somewhat rarely.^[3] In Lincolnshire changeable was a name for the hydrangea.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1275 – of people and their fortune: fickle, inconstant.^[3]
• before 1398 – subject to change, mutable; also impermanent, mortal.^[3][2]
• c. 1450 – of fabric: changing colour with the angle of view or the light.^[3][6]
• 1461 – able to be changed, alterable.^[3]
• 1535 – various, varying (now rare).^[3]
• 1552 – noun, a fabric that changes colour (now rare).^[3]
• 1612 – variegated, of diverse colours (now rare).^[3]
• 1645 – noun, a person or thing subject to change.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Likely to change or tending to vary often; variable: Pack a raincoat, because the mountain climate is changeable.^[12][7]
2. Able to be changed; alterable: a password changeable at any time.^[7][3]
3. Of people: prone to change their minds or loyalties; fickle, inconstant.^[12][7][3]
4. Of cloth: appearing to change colour with the light or the angle of view; shot.^[12][7][3]

Word family

• changeability
• changeably
• changeableness
• nonchangeable
• unchangeable

Related words

• change
• exchange
• interchangeable

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins