defensible

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English defensable, also spelled defensible,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French defensable (“able or ready to fight; providing a defence”), the Anglo-Norman and Old French form,^[4][5][3] recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1155.^[6] The French adjective is from Late Latin defensabilis (“able to be defended”), a 4th-century formation on dēfēnsō (“to defend diligently, protect”), the frequentative of dēfendō (“to defend”).^[4][3][7] The spelling with -ible is partly borrowed from Old French defensible, also Anglo-Norman defencible,^[4] and reflects Late Latin defensibilis (“capable of defence”), a 6th-century formation on the past participial stem of the same Latin verb;^[4][3][7] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the English word straight from the Late Latin form.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people or armies, able or ready to fight, capable of defending against attack: about 1325, in the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester.^[4][2] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1300,^[5] and Dictionary.com dates the word 1250–1300.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From fighters the word passed to places and gear: in the early Wycliffite Bible (before 1382) a defensible place was one that gave protection against attack, a sense obsolete after 1818,^[4][2] while weapons, armour and clothing that protected the wearer were defensible from 1415, often in the phrase defensible array, now archaic.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary also records the word of a case or argument, in the sense "tenable".^[2] The sense "justifiable by argument" is first quoted in 1483, in Caxton's translation of Deguileville's Pilgrimage of the Soul, and the now usual sense of a place that can be defended in 1572;^[4] Etymonline dates "capable of being defended" to the late 14th century and "that may be vindicated" to the early 15th.^[5] The old fighting sense lived on mainly in defensible men, men eligible for conscription.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the word simply as "that may be defended", quoting Shakespeare's Henry IV and Bacon.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – of people, able or ready to fight.^[4][2] Etymonline dates this sense c. 1300.^[5]
• before 1382 – of a place, giving protection against attack (obsolete after 1818).^[4]
• 1415 – of weapons or armour, protective.^[4]
• 1483 – of an idea or action, justifiable by argument.^[4]
• 1572 – of a place, able to be defended against attack.^[4]
• 1581 – defended, safe (obsolete after 1793).^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be defended against attack: a defensible hilltop fort.^[12][3][4]
2. Able to be justified by argument; excusable: Her choice was defensible given what she knew at the time.^[12][3][4]
3. (obsolete) Giving protection against attack; defensive.^[3][4][8]

Word family

• defensibility
• defensibly

Related words

• defend
• defense
• defensive
• indefensible
• defendable

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins