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
Ancestry of “profitable”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old French | profitable | useful; usable; that one can make use of |
| 2 | Old French | able | able; capable |
| 3 | Latin | habilis | able to have/possess/maintain; having sufficient... |
| 4 | Latin | -ilis | -ile |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -elis | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -elis | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |
Words derived from “profitable”