Etymologically
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feasibility

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Pronunciation

  • /ˌfiːzɪˈbɪlɪti/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English feasible + -ity.[2][3][4][5] The adjective feasible is from Anglo-Norman faisible, from Old French faisable (“possible, that may be done; easy, convenient”), from the stem of faire (“to do, make”), from Latin faciō (“to make, do”).[3][2] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from the late 13th century.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Capability of being done; practicability: 1624, in a letter of Thomas James printed in Richard Parr's life of James Ussher.[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s.[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica, the word was also used for a feasible thing,[2][4] and Johnson (1755) gave only that sense, quoting Browne's "possibilities for feasibilities".[5] A sense "capability of being made", recorded in 1655, did not last.[2] The phrase feasibility study, a study of whether a proposed plan is practicable, is recorded from 1959, in the Times,[2] and is now its most common use.[4]

Timeline

  • 1624 – capability of being done; practicability.[2]
  • 1646 – something feasible, in Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica.[2][5]
  • 1655 – capability of being made (obsolete).[2]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines it as "a thing practicable".[5]
  • 1959 – feasibility study.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The quality or state of being feasible; practicability: Engineers doubted the feasibility of the tunnel.[2][7][4]
  2. (rare) A feasible thing.[2][4]
  3. feasibility study, feasibility report: an assessment of whether a proposed plan or project can be carried out.[2][4]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam