Mutable

[Dr. Goodword]

• mutable •

Pronunciation: myut-ê-bêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Liable to or capable of change, changeable.

Notes: The negative of today's Good Word, immutable, is probably more familiar than this word. Both are derived from a borrowed verb, mutate. Frequently the verbal suffix -ate is dropped from verb before the adjective suffix -ible or -able: educable, explicable, and (im)placable are some others. The adverb for this verb is mutably and the noun, mutability.

In Play: Today's word is a a bit more sophisticated than its synonym "changeable": "Leroy's position on this point is mutable; he is such a milquetoast." I fear it is being overpowered by its antonym, immutable: "Children are so mutable that good parenting is essential."

Word History: Today's word came to English through French from Latin mutabilis "changeable", based on the verb mutare "to change". The past participle of this verb is mutatus "changed"; English built its verb, mutate, on this form of the verb. This root seems to have come from a PIE verb moi-/mei "to change, move", for it shows up in many forms across Indo-European languages: Sanskrit methati "changes", Hittite mutai- "be changed into", Russian menyat' "to (ex)change". English common came from the PIE form kom- "(together) with" + moi-n- "change, exchange", originally "exchanged together (with all). (Our gratitude for William Hupy's contribution of his many Good Word suggestions is absolutely immutable.)

[call_copse]

Often used in the course of my employment as a developer to describe the nature of an object, in both forms, mutable and immutable.

[George Kovac]

“Mutable” is a fine Anglicization of useful French and Latin words. It made me think of a related, and delightfully sounding, phrase relating to “changeable.”

One of the interesting phrases I encountered as a young lawyer reading contracts and loan agreements was the phrase “mutatis mutandis” which means, more or less, “making necessary language changes in a different context while not affecting the main point at issue.” The phrase “mutatis mutandis” never mutated into an English language substitute.

You might use “mutatis mutandis”, for example, if, based on the occurrence of some event in the future, the relationship of the parties changes (say, from lessor/lessee to lender/borrower) but you want all the insurance provisions to stay in effect without restating them. It is a tempting shortcut in drafting, but one I never adopted for two reasons: 1. Aesthetics: Slipping Latin into an English language legal document is pretentious and archaic and not every reader readily understands the phrase. 2. Clarity: Exactly what gets substituted for what may be complex and unclear. I rarely encounter the phrase in contracts today, so I guess most lawyers have accepted my reservations—or are unfamiliar with Latin.

Other Latin based references (e.g.: i.e.) don’t bother me, and I use them freely in documents. Usage is grammar after all, not logic. One must develop a sense of sprachgefuhl in order to select the mot juste.