Etymology

responsible

R1E1S1P3O1N1S1I1B3L1E1

Today it means: Having the duty of taking care of something; answerable for an act performed or for its consequences; accountable; amenable, especially legally or politically. Full definition →

Middle French responsable ← Old French responsable ← Latin responsus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromresponsus
  2. Old French · derived fromresponsable
  3. Middle French · borrowed fromresponsable
  4. English todayresponsible

From Middle French responsable, from Old French responsable, responsible, formed from the root of Latin responsus, from respondeō, respondēre. The spelling of the English word is taken from the Old French variant responsible. By surface analysis, response + -ible.

Words from the same roots

Latinresponsus all →

responsory

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.