tolerable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tollerabill,^[2] borrowed from Old French tolerable, also tollerable,^[3][4][5][6] and directly borrowed from Latin tolerābilis (“that may be endured; that can endure”),^[3][7][8][5] from tolerō (“to bear, endure”),^[5][3][9] the source of tolerate, with the suffix that gave -able.^[7][5] The OED records the French word from the 14th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Able to be borne or endured: in Yonge's translation of the Secreta Secretorum, made in 1422 and preserved in a manuscript of before 1500.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century,^[3] Barnhart to about 1425,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1375–1425.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From "bearable", the word moved in the 16th century to "such as may be allowed or put up with" (1531, in Elyot), a sense now rare,^[5][6] and then, as Etymonline explains, to "fit to be tolerated", hence "middling, passable" (1548).^[3][5] This moderate sense has since come to mean "fairly good, not bad".^[5][6] Johnson (1755) gave both "supportable" and "not excellent; not contemptible; passable".^[10] Used as an adverb for tolerably from the 1670s,^[3][5] it is now chiefly colloquial or dialectal,^[6][2] and since 1812 tolerable has been said of a person in fair health.^[5][6] In the West Country and Devon the English Dialect Dictionary recorded tol'able for "fairly well in health" and "rather", and noted the adverb in American speech.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – able to be endured, bearable.^[7][5]
• 1531 – allowable, permissible (now rare).^[5]
• 1548 – moderate in quality, passable.^[5][3]
• 1555 – able to endure, tolerant (now obsolete).^[5]
• 1673 – adverb, tolerably.^[5][3]
• 1798 – tolerablish, just passable.^[3]
• 1812 – in fair health, passably well.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be endured or put up with; bearable: The heat was tolerable once the sun went down.^[12][2][5]
2. Fairly good; passable or mediocre: a tolerable meal.^[12][5][6]
3. (rare) Such as may be allowed; permissible.^[12][5][6]
4. (colloquial) In fair health: We're tolerable, thanks.^[5][6]

Adverb

1. (chiefly colloquial or dialect) Tolerably, fairly.^[2][6][5]

Word family

• tolerability
• tolerably
• tolerableness
• untolerable
• intolerable

Related words

• tolerance
• tolerant
• tolerate
• toleration

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins