removable

Etymology

It is formed from English remove + -able,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} in Middle English as remevable, also spelled removable, from remeven (“to remove”), perhaps influenced by mevable (“movable”).^[6] The OED suggests that it may be modelled on Anglo-Norman removable, recorded in Anglo-Norman with the sense "able to be dismissed" before 1377, and compares Medieval Latin removibilis.^[1] Remove is from Old French removoir, from Latin removeō (“to move back or away”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

That can be removed or taken away: about 1470, in a building record.^[1] Etymonline dates remevable to the early 15th century, of someone who can be removed from an office or station,^[2] and the Middle English Dictionary has it in a translation of the Secreta Secretorum made in 1422.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant movable, removable from office, and changeable or inconstant.^[6][1] The sense "able to be moved from one place to another" is recorded from the 1530s,^[2] and is now rare.^[1] Of an office holder, "subject to dismissal" is recorded from 1526,^[1] and Johnson (1755) illustrated it with Spenser on Irish clergy who were "removeable at their bishop's will".^[7] As a noun it meant something that can be removed, usually in the plural, from 1592,^[1] and in late 19th-century Ireland a removable was a resident magistrate who could be dismissed, generally thought to lack impartiality.^[1][4]

Timeline

• early 15th century – remevable, removable from an office or station.^[2]
• c. 1470 – that can be removed or taken away.^[1]
• 1526 – of an office holder, subject to dismissal.^[1]
• 1530s – able to be moved from one place to another.^[2]
• 1592 – noun, something that can be removed.^[1]
• 1888 – noun, a resident magistrate in Ireland.^[1]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That can be removed, taken off or taken away: a coat with a removable lining.^[3][1]
2. Of an official: subject to dismissal from office.^[1][3][4]
3. (obsolete) Changeable, inconstant.^[1][6]

Noun

1. Something that can be removed; usually in the plural.^[1]
2. (historical) In Ireland, a removable resident magistrate.^[1][4]

Word family

• removability
• removably
• irremovable
• nonremovable
• unremovable

Related words

• remove
• movable
• removal

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.