treatable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tretable,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French tretable, the Anglo-Norman form, beside Old French traitable,^[5][6][4][2] from Latin tractābilis (“manageable, yielding”),^[2][3][4] from tractō (“to handle, manage”), the source of treat.^[5] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from about 1136–65, meaning malleable, accommodating and open to persuasion.^[6] In some senses, especially "able to be treated", the English word is also formed from English treat + -able.^[2][7][5][8] The Latin adjective was borrowed separately as tractable.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people, easily dealt with, open to appeal or argument, affable: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense, "amenable to reason, open to entreaty", to about 1300.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From 1340 the word was used of things that yield to handling, such as a flexible metal or a disease that responds to treatment; this use is now obsolete except in medicine.^[2][5] In the 15th to 17th centuries it could describe actions as gentle and moderate (about 1450 to 1690),^[2][3] and speech as deliberate and distinct (1530 to 1642).^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "moderate; not violent", with a quotation from Hooker.^[9] The modern sense, "capable of being treated", appears in 1570 and now prevails,^[2][3] while the sense "easily managed, docile" is archaic.^[3][7]

Timeline

• 1303 – of people, easily dealt with, open to appeal, affable.^[2]
• 1340 – of things, yielding to treatment; flexible.^[2]
• c. 1384 – able to be touched, tangible (obsolete, to 1541).^[2]
• c. 1450 – of actions, gentle, moderate (obsolete, to 1690).^[2]
• 1530 – of speech, deliberate, distinct (obsolete, to 1642).^[2]
• 1570 – capable of being treated or dealt with.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be treated, especially of a disease or injury that responds to medical treatment: a treatable infection.^[3][2]
2. (archaic) Easily managed or dealt with; open to argument; docile, tractable.^[3][2][7]
3. (obsolete, c. 1450–1690) Gentle and moderate rather than violent.^[3][2][9]

Word family

• treatability

Related words

• treat
• tractable
• untreatable

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 r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c 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 Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.