evitabilis

Forms

ēvītābilis (neuter ēvītābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ēvītō (“to avoid”) + -bilis.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, of a weapon that is “not avoidable” (non ēvītābile tēlum).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Seneca uses it in the Natural Questions of evils that can be avoided, as opposed to inevitabilia,^[4] and Augustine has it too.^[3] English has evitable from it, probably revived in modern use as a back-formation from inevitable.^[5]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid speaks of a weapon that cannot be avoided.^[3][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca contrasts avoidable and unavoidable evils.^[4][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of enemies.^[3][6]
• c. 1500 – Borrowed into English as evitable.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Avoidable, that can be shunned.^[2][4][3]

Related words

• inevitabilis
• English evitable

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de