durability

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English durabilite, also durablete,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French durabilité^[5][6][7][8] and directly borrowed from Late Latin dūrābilitās,^[5][7][6] a word used by Palladius,^[7] a noun of quality from Latin dūrābilis (“lasting, permanent”),^[5][3] the source of durable.^[8] The adjective is from dūrō (“to harden”), from dūrus (“hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“to be firm, solid, steadfast”).^[5] The MED compares Old French durableté.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Continuance, lastingness, permanence: about 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,^[7] in the form durablete: "the longe durablete of mortel thinges".^[2] Chaucer used the word only once.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense "the ability to withstand decay or wear" is recorded from 1593, in Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity,^[7] and Johnson (1755) quoted the same passage, which speaks of stones exceeding plants in "durability of being", in defining the word as "the power of lasting; continuance; endurance".^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – continuance, permanence (Chaucer, as durablete).^[7][2]
• 1593 – the ability to withstand decay or wear (Hooker).^[7]
• 1755 – Johnson: the power of lasting, endurance.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being durable; the ability to last a long time without wearing out, breaking or decaying: the durability of slate roofs.^[3][7][8]
2. Permanence, lastingness.^[7][9]

Related words

• durable
• endure
• duration
• during
• obdurate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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.