controllable

Etymology

It is formed from English control + -able.^[2][3][4] The verb was borrowed in the early 15th century from Anglo-Norman contreroller (“to check, verify”),^[3][2] apparently from contrerolle (“duplicate roll kept for checking”), formed from contre (“against”) and role (“roll”).^[2] Etymonline traces it to Medieval Latin contrarotulus (“a counter, register”), from Latin contra (“against”) and rotulus, a diminutive of rota (“wheel”): accounts were checked against a duplicate register.^[3][2] The OED compares uncontrollable.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Liable to restraint or stoppage: 1576, in A. Fleming's translation of Cicero in A Panoplie of Epistles; this sense is obsolete.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1600, in the sense "capable of being checked or restrained".^[3]

Semantic evolution

Early senses followed those of the verb: from 1581 to 1795 controllable meant liable to be overruled,^[2] and between 1610 and 1778 open to challenge, able to be disproved, from the verb's old sense "to challenge, contradict".^[2] The lasting sense, "capable of being controlled", is first recorded before 1600 in Richard Hooker; at first it meant chiefly capable of being restrained, and now usually means capable of being governed or directed.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "subject to control; subject to command; subject to be over-ruled", quoting Robert South: "Passion is the drunkenness of the mind, and therefore, in its present workings, not controllable by reason."^[4]

Timeline

• 1576 – liable to restraint or stoppage (obsolete).^[2][5]
• 1581 – liable to be overruled (obsolete after 1795).^[2]
• before 1600 – capable of being restrained, later of being governed or directed.^[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1600.^[3]
• 1610 – open to challenge; able to be disproved (obsolete after 1778).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be controlled, directed or kept in check: By evening the flooding was controllable again.^[6][2][7]
2. (obsolete, 1581–1795) Liable to be overruled.^[2][4]

Word family

• incontrollable
• noncontrollable
• controllably

Related words

• control
• roll
• rotate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
5. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers