tangible

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin tangibilis (“that may be touched”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} partly through Middle French tangible, recorded from the 16th century.^[4][3][7][2] The Latin adjective is formed from tangō (“to touch”) with the suffix -ibilis, English -ible.^[8][9][4] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the verb to Proto-Indo-European *tag- (“to touch, handle”).^[3][5] The same verb gave tangent, a line that touches a circle, and its past participle tāctus gave contact, intact and tact.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Able to be touched: 1589, in George Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie.^[2][4][9]

Semantic evolution

From the physical sense the word soon passed to things that are material and real: the sense "material, objective", as in a tangible reward, is recorded from 1620.^[2][4][3] From 1664 it was also used of qualities that can be told apart by touch,^[2][11] and Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "perceptible by the touch", quoting Bacon and Locke.^[12] The figurative sense, something the mind can grasp or treat as a fact, as in tangible evidence, is recorded from 1709, in Berkeley's essay on vision.^[2][4][3] A sense "capable of being moved emotionally" appears in 1813 in Leigh Hunt.^[2] The noun, a tangible thing, dates from 1890, in William James,^[2][9][3] and in economics tangible assets, physical assets that can be valued exactly, are recorded from 1930;^[2][7] the plural tangibles is used of such assets.^[9][13]

Timeline

• 1589 – able to be touched.^[2][4]
• 1620 – material, real, objective.^[2][4]
• 1664 – perceptible by the sense of touch.^[2]
• 1709 – that the mind can grasp or treat as a fact.^[2][4][3]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as "perceptible by the touch".^[12]
• 1890 – noun, a tangible thing.^[2][9]
• 1930 – of physical assets that can be precisely valued.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be touched or felt; having physical substance: a tangible object.^[13][5][9]
2. Real and definite enough to be treated as a fact; concrete: They wanted tangible proof before they would act.^[5][13][2]
3. Clear enough to be understood or achieved: the tangible gains of the new policy.^[5][2]
4. (law) Of property: having a physical existence, such as land or goods.^[5][13]

Noun

1. Something tangible, especially a physical asset; often in the plural.^[9][13][5]

Word family

• tangibility
• tangibly
• tangibleness
• nontangible
• untangible

Related words

• tangent
• tact
• tactile
• contact
• intact
• intangible

References

1. ^ a b 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 c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins