potable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English potable,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French potable,^[4][5][6][2] recorded from the late 13th century,^[4] and directly borrowed from Late Latin pōtābilis (“drinkable”),^[4][5][6][2] of the 4th century,^[4] from Latin pōtō (“to drink”) and the suffix -bilis.^[4][7] The American Heritage Dictionary derives the verb from pōtus (“a drink”),^[3] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *po(i)- (“to drink”).^[5][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Latin bibō and Ancient Greek πίνω (pínō),^[7] and Ayto gives French boire and Welsh yfed as words from the same base.^[8] The OED compares Catalan potable, Spanish potable and Italian potabile.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fit for drinking: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, of a mixture in fourme potable.^[4][2][6] Etymonline likewise has the early 15th century,^[5] but Hoad, Collins and Dictionary.com date the word only to the 16th century.^[9][10][11]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its plain sense from the start.^[4] Early modern English also knew potable gold, a liquid preparation of dissolved gold formerly taken as a medicine, modelled on Middle French or potable of 1516;^[4][12] Johnson (1755) quotes Milton's "Rivers run potable gold".^[13] The noun potables, drinkable substances, followed in the early 17th century.^[4][6][7] Johnson quoted Philips's "useful in potables" for it, under the adjective.^[13] Chapman used the adjective in 1605 for "intoxicated", a use the OED records once.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1425 – fit for drinking.^[4][2][6]
• 1605 – related to drinking, intoxicated (rare, obsolete).^[4]
• before 1625 – plural noun, drinkable substances, liquor.^[4] Barnhart dates the noun to 1623, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to about 1625.^[6][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fit or safe to drink; drinkable: They boiled the river water until it was potable.^[10][7][4]
2. (obsolete) potable gold: a liquid preparation of dissolved gold formerly taken as a medicine.^[12][13]

Noun

1. A liquid fit to drink; a beverage, usually in the plural.^[10][7][4]

Word family

• potability
• potableness
• nonpotable
• unpotable

Related words

• potion
• poison
• potation
• imbibe
• portable

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ 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.