dependable

Etymology

It is formed from English depend + -able.^[2][3][4][5] Depend is from Old French dependre (“to hang from, hang down”) and directly from Latin dēpendeō (“to hang from; to be dependent on”), from dē- (“from, down”) and pendeō (“to hang”),^[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen- (“to draw, stretch, spin”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

That can be depended on; trustworthy, reliable: 1730, in the correspondence of A. Pope.^[2][6] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster's Unabridged date it to 1735,^[3][7] Dictionary.com to 1725–35,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid-18th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective took its sense from the verb depend in its meaning "to rely, rest with confidence", which Etymonline dates from about 1500,^[3] and it has kept this one meaning.^[2][7] The Shorter Oxford dates the derivatives dependableness and dependably to the mid-19th century and dependability to the early 20th.^[4]

Timeline

• 1730 – trustworthy, reliable.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster's Unabridged date the word to 1735.^[3][7]
• mid 19th century – dependableness and dependably.^[4]
• early 20th century – dependability.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be depended on; reliable and trustworthy: She proved a dependable partner throughout the project.^{[8][7][9][10]}

Word family

• dependability
• dependably
• dependableness
• undependable

Related words

• depend
• dependent
• pendant
• pendulum

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster discuss dependable among the synonyms of reliable, with trustworthy and trusty.^[9][7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press