Etymology

inoperable

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Today it means: Incapable of being successfully operated on. Full definition →

English operable ← Latin operābilis ← Middle English in-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Italic*n̥-
  4. Latinin-
  5. Middle Englishin-
  6. Englishin-
  7. Latinoperābilis
  8. Englishoperable
  9. English todayinoperable

From in- + operable.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.