pleasurable

Etymology

It is formed from English pleasure + -able,^[2][3][4][5] on the pattern of the earlier comfortable.^[2][6][4][3] Pleasure is from Old French plesir, also plaisir (“enjoyment, delight”), the infinitive plaisir, to please, used as a noun, from Latin placeō (“to please, give pleasure”).^[3][7] Middle English had plesable (“capable of pleasing”), formed separately.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Giving pleasure; agreeable or pleasant: 1557, in Tottel's Songes and Sonettes by the Earl of Surrey and others.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the 1570s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1570–80.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The main sense has not changed since the 16th century.^[2][3] Ben Jonson used it in 1600 of a person devoted to pleasure, a sense obsolete after 1710;^[2][8] Etymonline notes that the sense "able to feel pleasure" has been rare.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "delightful; full of pleasure", quoting Bacon on planting orchards.^[9] Merriam-Webster records pleasureable as a less common spelling.^[8]

Timeline

• 1557 – giving pleasure; agreeable.^[2][8] Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.^[3]
• 1600 – devoted to pleasure, pleasure-seeking (obsolete by 1710).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Giving pleasure or satisfaction; enjoyable or agreeable: a pleasurable afternoon by the river.^[10][8][2]
2. (obsolete, 1600–1710) Fond of pleasure; pleasure-seeking.^[2][8][4]

Word family

• pleasurability
• pleasurably
• pleasurableness
• unpleasurable

Related words

• pleasure
• please
• pleasant

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins