• potable •
Pronunciation: po-tê-bêl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Drinkable, suitable for drinking.
Notes: Should you ever need a more sophisticated word for drinkable, this word will serve the purpose. It comes with two nouns, potability and potableness. and two acceptable negative forms, impotable and unpotable; the former is preferable in both cases.
In Play: Today's word is used most often in reference to water: "Watermakers are available to yacht owners for converting brine into potable water." However, it is available for other drinkable liquids in the sense of "tasty": "Hammond Dandy makes a very potable dandelion wine."
Word History: Today's Good Word was victim of another raid on the Old French vocabulary. Old French inherited the word from Latin potabilis "drinkable", derived from potare "to drink", inherited from PIE poi- "to drink", also underlying Sanskrit pati "drinks", Greek pinein "to drink", Latin potio(n) "a (poisonous) drink", Polish pić "to drink", Russian pit' "to drink" and pivo "beer", Serbian piti "to drink" and pivo "beer", and Albanian pi "to drink". By late Latin, a variant of poi- had popped up as bibere "to drink". We find the root of this word in English Latinate and French borrowings like bib, beer, beverage, and imbibe. (Now another dose of gratitude is owed William Hupy, grandmaster of GW suggestions, for suggesting today's sophisticated Good Word.)
