transferable

Etymology

It is formed from English transfer + -able,^[2][3][4] on the model of preferable and referable, as the OED notes.^[2] It is also spelled transferrable.^[3][5][4] The verb transfer is from French transférer or directly from Latin trānsferō (“to carry across”),^[2][3] formed from trāns- (“across”) and ferō (“to carry”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Capable of being transferred or legally made over to another: 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1650s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word combined the general sense, able to be moved or handed from one place or person to another, with the legal and commercial one, of property, bills, drafts and cheques that can be assigned from one holder to the next.^[2][3][5] The derivative transferability followed in 1776.^[6] In the late 19th century the word entered electoral language: a transferable vote, in proportional representation, passes to a voter's next choice when the first choice is eliminated or has more votes than needed, as in the single transferable vote.^[6][4]

Timeline

• 1646 – able to be transferred or legally made over to another.^[2][6]
• 1776 – transferability, the quality of being transferable.^[6]
• 1885 – transferable vote, in proportional representation.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be moved or handed over from one place or person to another: Her teaching experience proved transferable to corporate training.^[5][4]
2. (of property, rights, bills, tickets etc.) Able to be legally made over to another, with all the rights of the original holder; assignable, negotiable: The concert pass is not transferable.^[5][2][4][7]
3. transferable vote: in proportional representation, a vote that passes to the voter's next choice if the first choice is eliminated or already elected.^[4][6]

Word family

• untransferable
• nontransferable

Related words

• transfer
• transference
• transferee
• transferor
• -able

Usage notes

The OED records stress on either the second syllable (/trɑːn(t)sˈfəːrəbl/) or the first (/ˈtrɑːn(t)sfərəbl/) in British English, and both in American English.^[2] The spelling transferrable is less common.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West