evitable

See also: évitable

English

WOTD – 26 February 2018

Etymology

From Middle French evitable (modern French évitable), from Latin ēvītābilis (“avoidable”), from ēvītō (“to avoid”) + -bilis (“-able”, suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’). Ēvītō is derived from ē- (“prefix meaning ‘out’”) + vītō (“to avoid, evade; to shun”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dwidʰeh₁- (“separate, set apart”), a compound of *dwi- (“two”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to put”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛvɪtəb(ə)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛvɪtəb(ə)l/, /-ɾə-/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: evi‧ta‧ble

Adjective

evitable (comparative more evitable, superlative most evitable)

1. (uncommon) Possible to avoid; avertible. [from early 16th c.]

   Synonyms: avoidable, avertable, escapable, preventable, resistible

   Antonyms: ineluctable, inescapable, inevitable, irresistible, unavoidable, unescapable, unpreventable

   The tragic consequences were evitable.

   • [1686?], [William Penn], A Perswasive to Moderation to Church Dissenters, in Prudence and Conscience: Humbly Submitted to the King and His Great Councel. By One of the Humblest and Most Dutiful of His Dissenting Subjects, [s.l.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 37:

     That Fort is unſafe where a part of the Garriſon conſiſts of diſguiſed Enemies; for when they take their turns at the Watch, the danger is hardly evitable. It would then certainly be for the ſafety of the Fort, that ſuch Friends in Maſquerade were induſtrouſly kept out, inſtead of being whipt in.

   • 1798, Thomas Dicey, “The Chapel of Nostre Dame des Pas, Guernsey”, in An Historical Account of Guernsey, from Its First Settlement before the Norman Conquest to the Present Time. Giving a Particular and Entertaining Description of the Island, Its Produce, Trade, Laws, Revenues, Privileges, Religion, and Government in General. To which is Added Some Proper Remarks on Jersey, and the Other Islands Belonging to the Crown of Great Britain on the French Coast. The Whole Interspersed with Many New and Interesting Observations Worthy of Public Notice, new edition, London: Printed for I. Herbert; and E. Harding, No. 98, Pall-Mall, →OCLC, page 66:

     A momentary ſhock like this, I ſay, may, for aught we otherwiſe know, ſooner or later, prove our lot, whenever the evitable fate of our impieties will no longer ſuffer the divine juſtice to be patient.

   • 1926 February 23, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “[The Clark Lectures] Lecture V: Donne’s Longer Poems”, in Ronald Schuchard, editor, The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry: The Clark Lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1926, and the Turnbull Lectures at the Johns Hopkins University, 1933, 1st U.S. edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace & Company, published 1994, →ISBN, page 159:

     The "disintegration" [of the intellect] of which I speak may be evitable or inevitable, good or bad; to draw its optimistic or pessimistic conclusions is an occupation for prophets and makers of almanacks, of whom I am not one.

   • 2010, Yijun Feng, “Compensated Anisotropic Metamaterials: Manipulating Sub-wavelength Images”, in Tie Jin Cui, David R. Smith, Ruopeng Liu, editors, Metamaterials: Theory, Design, and Applications, New York, N.Y., Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 157:

     [W]e will analyze the imaging performance through the compensated bilayer lens theoretically and explore the effects of loss and retardation in the material parameters on the image quality, which are evitable in realistic metamaterials.

Derived terms

• evitability
• evitably
• inevitability
• inevitable
• inevitableness

 

Translations

possible to avoid

• Catalan: evitable m or f
• Czech: vyhnutelný m
• Esperanto: evitebla
• French: évitable (fr)
• Galician: evitable (gl) m or f, evitábel (gl) m or f
• Italian: evitabile (it) m or f
• Latin: ēvītābilis n
• Portuguese: evitável (pt) m or f
• Spanish: evitable (es)

References

• “evitable”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ēvītābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ə.βiˈtab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ə.viˈtab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [e.viˈta.ble]
• Homophone: habitable (Central)

Adjective

evitable m or f (masculine and feminine plural evitables)

1. avoidable

   Antonym: inevitable

Related terms

• evitar

Further reading

• “evitable” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “evitable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “evitable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “evitable” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Galician

Alternative forms

• evitábel

Etymology

From Latin ēvītābilis.

Adjective

evitable m or f (plural evitables)

1. avoidable

   Antonyms: inevitábel, inevitable

Related terms

• evitar

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin ēvītābilis. Cognate with rare English evitable.

Adjective

evitable m or f (masculine and feminine plural evitables)

1. avoidable

   Antonym: inevitable

Related terms

• evitar

 

Further reading

• “evitable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014