Etymologically
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manageable

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmænɪd͡ʒəbəl/[1]
  • US: /ˈmænəd͡ʒəbəl/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English manage + -able.[2][3][4][5][6] The OED compares Italian maneggiabile (“that can be worked with the hands”), from the first half of the 16th century, and an early English spelling of manageable follows the Italian form.[2][2] The verb is from Italian maneggiare (“to handle, hold in the hand”),[2][7] from Latin manus (“hand”).[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Amenable to control or guidance; workable, able to be wielded or handled: 1593, in Thomas Lodge's Life and Death of William Long Beard.[2] Etymonline dates "capable of being handled" to the 1590s,[4] and Merriam-Webster gives 1598.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the senses of manage, which was first used of handling and training a horse.[4][7] Etymonline dates the sense "capable of being governed or controlled" to about 1600,[4] and the OED records "achievable, capable of being done" from 1620, in Shelton's translation of Don Quixote.[2] Johnson (1755) gave "easy in the use; not difficult to be wielded or moved" and "governable; tractable".[8] The OED notes much overlap in meaning with the older, unrelated maniable.[2] The derivatives followed: manageableness in the mid 17th century, manageability in the late 18th and manageably in the mid 19th.[5] In Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect manageable was also used actively, of a person able to manage things.[9]

Timeline

  • 1590s – capable of being handled, according to Etymonline.[4]
  • 1593 – amenable to control; workable (Lodge).[2]
  • 1598 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.[3]
  • c. 1600 – capable of being governed.[4]
  • 1620 – achievable (Shelton).[2]
  • mid 17th century – manageableness.[5]
  • late 18th century – manageability.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Able to be controlled, handled or dealt with without great difficulty; tractable: The debt was large but still manageable.[10][3][2]
  2. Of a size or weight that is easy to carry or use: a manageable little suitcase.[10][2]
  3. Able to be achieved or done.[2]

Word family

  • manageability
  • manageably
  • manageableness
  • unmanageable

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins