Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “substitutable” come from?

Substitutable derives from Middle English -able combined with Latin substitutus, the past participle of substituere, with the suffix -abilis denoting capability or fitness.

substitutable (English): Capable of being used as a substitute; valid as a...

Definitions

  1. Capable of being used as a substitute; valid as a...

Ancestry of “substitutable”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishsubstituteTo use in place of something else, with the same...
2Middle Englishsubstituten—
3Latinsubstitutussubstituted
4LatinsubstituoI place next to, under, or instead of; I...
5LatinstatuoI set up, station; I establish, determine, fix; I...
6Latinstātus—
7Latinstō—
8Proto-Italicstaēōstand
9Proto-Indo-Europeansth₂éh₁yeti—
10Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-—

Words derived from “substitutable”

  • nonsubstitutable
  • unsubstitutable
  • intersubstitutable
Every word from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- →