habitabilis

Forms

habitābilis (neuter habitābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin habitō (“to dwell, inhabit”) + -bilis.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is the first author cited for it, of the regions and zones of the earth where people can live.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant fit to live in; poets also used it of a place that gives a home to someone, as when Ovid writes nec nobis caelum est habitabile!, “nor is heaven a place we may live in!”.^[2][4] Poetic use also gave it the sense “inhabited”.^[4] Church Latin kept the meaning “habitable, fit for living”.^[6]

English took habitable in the late 14th century from Old French habitable, from this Latin word.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of habitable regions and zones of the earth.^[4][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses the word.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it, of heaven among other places.^[2][4][5]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English through Old French as habitable.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fit to live in, habitable.^[2][4][6]
2. In which one may live; giving a home to someone.^[2]
3. (poetic) Inhabited.^[4]

Word family

• inhabitābilis

Related words

• English habitable

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com