convertible

What it means

1. Able to be converted
   1. Able to be exchanged, one for the other, especially

      As if, in truth, there were no God of Labour; as if godlike Labour and brutal Mammonism were convertible terms.

      1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. VI, Two Centuries”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker)

   2. historicalhobbiesAble to be exchanged for specie.
   3. hobbiesAble to be exchanged for foreign currency.

      Seven months ago Prime Minister Ante Marković, a Croat, attacked Yugoslavia's 2,600 percent inflation rate by making the dinar convertible to Western currencies and lopping off four zeroes.

      1990 August, Kenneth C. Danforth, “Yugoslavia: A House Much Divided”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, page 110

In a sentence

As if, in truth, there were no God of Labour; as if godlike Labour and brutal Mammonism were convertible terms.

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. VI, Two Centuries”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker)

Where it comes from

1. Latinconvertere“to turn back, to turn over, to turn around, to turn upside down”
2. Late Latinconvertibilis“interchangeable”
3. Old Frenchconvertible
4. Englishconvertible

From Old French convertible, from Late Latin convertibilis (“interchangeable”), from Latin convertere (“to turn back, to turn over, to turn around, to turn upside down”), from con- (“with, together”) + vertere (“to turn”), + -ibilis (“-ible: able to”). Equivalent to convert + -ible.