• palpable •
Pronunciation: pæl-pê-bêl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. That may be touched or felt, perceptible by touch; tangible. 2. Perceptible by a sense other than touch: plainly observable, noticeable. 3. Perceptible by the mind: obvious, clear, manifest.
Notes: Palpable in English may be derived from either the verb, palp "to touch tenderly, handle gently" or palpate "to examine by feel for medical purposes." It comes with a full complement associates: an adverb, paplably, and a noun, palpability.
In Play: The original sense of today's word was limited to the sense of feel: "Randy had a palpable bump on his head where his wife hit him with a frying pan." Then it spread to perception by and sense or the mind: "The tension at the table between June McBride and Phil Anders was palpable and made the rest of us uncomfortable."
Word History: English picked up this word from the French word (as always) which is spelled the same. French inherited it from Latin palpabilis, which was based on palpare "to touch, stroke gently". The frequentative form of this word (meaning "to touch or stroke often") was palpitare. This verb gave English palpitate and Latin papilio(n) "butterfly", which went on to become French papillon "butterfly, flibbertigibbet". In Old French papillon meant "elaborate tent", too, and came to be pronounced pavillion in that sense. English borrowed this word, too, explaining why pavilion still means "tent" outside the US. Latin inherited palpare from Proto-Indo-European pal- "to touch, feel, shake". By the time this word worked its way down through Old Germanic to English it had become feel. (We hope our gratitude to Diane Lyons for suggesting we do this word is palpable.)
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