Etymologically
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durability

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈdʲʊɹəbɪləti/[1]
  • US: /dəɹəˈbɪləti/[1]

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]

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.