recoverable

Etymology

It is formed from English recover + -able,^[2][3][4] first as Middle English recoverable, from recoveren and -able.^[5][6] The OED compares the earlier unrecoverable and recuperable, and Middle French recouvrable, used from about 1450 of a loss that can be made up for and later of what can be found again.^[2] Etymonline allows that the English word may instead come from Old French recouvrable, from recouvrer,^[7] and Johnson gave the French word as its source.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, able to be recovered or obtained by legal process: 1448, in the council register of Aberdeen.^[2] The Middle English Dictionary's first record, about 1475 in the Catholicon Anglicum, glosses Latin recuperabilis as capable of being regained.^[6] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The general sense, able to be regained, is recorded before 1500, in George Ashby's Active Policy of a Prince.^[2][6] In the late 16th century the word was applied to states that can be undone or healed: a slip or lapse from which recovery is possible (1584), a disease that can be cured (1585), and something that can be restored to a sound or normal condition (before 1599, in Spenser).^[2][7] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, possible to be restored from sickness and possible to be regained, quoting Shakespeare's Timon of Athens for the second.^[8] From 1866 it was used of fossil fuels and minerals that can be extracted, especially at a profit.^[2]

Timeline

• 1448 – in law, able to be recovered by legal process.^[2]
• c. 1475 – capable of being regained.^[6] The OED's first quotation for this sense is from before 1500.^[2]
• 1584 – of a slip or lapse, from which recovery is possible.^[2]
• 1585 – of a disease, curable.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to the 1610s.^[7]
• before 1599 – able to be restored to a sound or normal condition.^[2][7]
• before 1616 – traceable (obsolete).^[2]
• 1866 – of a fossil fuel or mineral, able to be extracted.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be recovered, regained or retrieved: Most of the deleted files were recoverable.^[5][3][2]
2. Of a fuel or mineral, able to be extracted, especially at a profit.^[2]
3. Of an illness or condition, from which recovery is possible; curable.^[2][8]
4. (law) Able to be obtained by legal process.^[2]

Word family

• recoverability
• nonrecoverable

Related words

• recover
• recovery
• recuperable

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d 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)
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ 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.