Etymology

sufferable

suf·fer·a·ble
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Today it means: Able to suffer, endure, or tolerate. Full definition →

Middle English sufferable ← Anglo-Norman sufferable ← Old French souffrable
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰer-“to bear, carry”
  2. Latin · derived fromsufferre
  3. Medieval Latin · derived fromsufferābilis
  4. Old French · derived fromsouffrable
  5. Anglo-Norman · derived fromsufferable
  6. Middle English · inherited fromsufferable
  7. English todaysufferable

PIE word *upó From Middle English sufferable, souffrable (“bearable, endurable, tolerable; allowable, permissible; able to or willing to bear hardship; forbearing, long-suffering; calm, self-restrained, slow to anger; capable of suffering”), from Anglo-Norman sufferable, souffrable, and Old French souffrable, suffrable (“sufferable, tolerable”)), from Medieval Latin sufferābilis, from Latin sufferre + -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’). Sufferre is the present active infinitive of sufferō, subferō (“to bear or carry under; to bear, endure, suffer, undergo”), from sub- (prefix meaning ‘below, under’) + ferō (“to bear, carry; to endure, suffer, tolerate”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)). The English word is analysable as suffer + -able.

Words from the same roots

Anglo-Normansufferable all →

Old Frenchsouffrable all →

Medieval Latinsufferābilis all →

Latinsufferre all →

Proto-Indo-European*bʰer- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.