viable

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈvaɪ.ə.bəl/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French viable (“capable of life”) (1530s),^[2][3][4] from vie, life, from Latin vīta (see vital), and -able.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a newborn infant, capable of living: 1823 in Etymonline;^[3] 1828–32 in Webster's Dictionary, which Barnhart and the OED take as the first record.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

An 1827 article on infanticide adopted the word from French because English had nothing as expressive, the proposed rearable being too vague.^[3] Other physical uses, of seeds or cells able to grow, are from 1885.^[6] The figurative sense, able to exist independently, is first recorded in 1848,^[2][6] and workable or practicable in 1955 in Barnhart,^[2] the mid-19th century in Word Origins.^[7] Viability is from the 19th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1823 – capable of living (of infants).^[3]
• 1848 – able to exist (figurative).^[2][6]
• 1885 – of seeds or cells.^[6]
• 1955 – workable.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Capable of working or succeeding; feasible: a viable plan.
2. Capable of living or developing, as a seed, egg or cell.
3. Of a fetus, able to live outside the womb.

Word family

• viability
• viably
• unviable
• nonviable

Related words

• vital
• vivid
• revive

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press