Where does “profitable” come from?

Profitable comes from Old French profitable, formed from Old French -able, ultimately from Latin -abilis, a suffix meaning "capable of being," and Latin -i-.

profitable (English): Producing a profit

Definitions

  1. Producing a profit

Ancestry of “profitable”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchprofitableuseful; usable; that one can make use of
2Old Frenchableable; capable
3Latinhabilisable to have/possess/maintain; having sufficient...
4Latin-ilis-ile
5Proto-Italic-elis—
6Proto-Indo-European-elis—
7Proto-Indo-European-lósForms agent nouns from verbal roots

Words derived from “profitable”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European -lós →