receivable

Etymology

It is formed from English receive + -able,^[1][2][3][4] partly after Old French receivable, the Anglo-Norman form, and Middle French recevable.^[1][5][4] The Shorter Oxford takes the earliest uses as a borrowing of the Anglo-Norman variant, and only the later ones as formed from receive and -able.^[6] Dictionary.com notes that the modern form replaced Middle English rescevable.^[4] The French adjective meant "admissible", of an indictment or excuse, from 1265 in Old French, and "worthy of", of a person, in Anglo-Norman.^[1] Receive comes through Old French receivre, an Old North French form of recoivre, from Latin recipiō (“to take back, take in”), formed from re- (“back”) and capiō (“to take”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Capable of being received: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible,^[1][5] where the same text also used it for "capable of receiving".^[1][5] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century,^[2] Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word already had a legal flavour: the Middle English Dictionary records it of an excuse, "admissible",^[5] and the OED dates the sense of an indictment, excuse or evidence that may be allowed to before 1500.^[1][7] The active sense "able to receive" lasted from the Wycliffite Bible until 1887 and is now obsolete or rare.^[1][6] Johnson (1755) gave only "capable of being received".^[8] Money and commerce shaped the later senses: from 1708 it was used of certificates or paper money that must be accepted as legal tender,^[1] and the noun, things to be received, especially debts owed to a business and counted among its assets, is recorded from 1836,^[1] though Etymonline finds receivables only by 1863.^[2] The phrase accounts receivable belongs to this use.^[9][3] Broadcasting added the sense of a signal or station that can be picked up, recorded from 1925.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1382 – capable of being received; also capable of receiving (obsolete by 1887).^[1][5]
• before 1500 – of an indictment, excuse or evidence, admissible in law.^[1][5]
• 1708 – of certificates or paper money, to be accepted as legal tender.^[1]
• 1836 – noun, things to be received, especially debts owed to a business.^[1] Etymonline dates the plural noun to 1863.^[2]
• 1925 – of a broadcast signal or station, able to be received.^[1]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able or fit to be received, especially as payment or legal tender: The vouchers are receivable at any branch.^[9][10][1]
2. Of a bill or account, awaiting or due for payment: notes receivable.^[9][3][10]
3. (law) Of evidence or testimony, admissible.^[3][1][7]
4. Of a broadcast, able to be picked up by a receiver.^[3][1]
5. (obsolete, 1382–1887) Able to receive; receptive.^[1][6][5]

Noun

1. An amount owed to a business by its customers, counted among its assets; usually in the plural: The company's receivables rose last quarter.^{[9][10][1][7]}

Word family

• receivability
• nonreceivable
• unreceivable

Related words

• receive
• receipt
• reception
• recipient
• receptacle
• capable

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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)
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
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. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin