viable

Forms

viable (plural viables)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French vie + -able.^[2][1][3][4] The noun is from Latin vīta (“life”).^[5] Littré explained it instead from a Latin phrase vitae habilis (“fit for life”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dictionaries date it to 1537, in the French translation of Castiglione's Courtisan, of a being able to live; the TLFi's first certain record is Estienne in 1549.^[4][7][8][2] The DMF has an earlier example in Chastellain's chronicle (about 1456–1471), where the duke's people thought he was viable long enough to marry and have heirs.^[9]

Semantic evolution

It first applied to a being, especially a newborn or a foetus, born with a form that makes it able to live, and so became a term of medicine and law.^[8][6][7] By analogy it came to qualify anything with the conditions needed to last and develop, such as a state or a business (1830 in the TLFi and DHLF, 1831 in Balzac according to the GLLF).^[2][8][7]

Its derivative viabilité is recorded of a foetus in 1803 and by analogy in 1842; the negative inviable first meant “unlivable” (1877).^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1456–1471 – Chastellain uses viable of a duke expected to live.^[9]
• 1537 – Recorded in the translation of the Courtisan.^[4][7]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne records it.^[2]
• 1803 – Viabilité appears, of a foetus.^[8]
• 1830 – The sense “able to last” appears.^[2][8]
• 1877 – Inviable is first recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to live, especially of a foetus or newborn: enfant né viable.^[2][3][6]
2. (figurative) Able to last or develop, viable, durable: entreprise viable.^[3][2]

Word family

• viabilité
• inviable

Related words

• vie
• vivre
• Latin vīta

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf