*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of arable

From Middle English arable, from Middle French arable, from Old French arable, from Latin arābilis, formed from arō (“plow”) + -bilis (“able to be”). Cognate with earable (“arable”).

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In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
adj

Of land, able to be plowed or tilled, capable of growing crops (traditionally contrasted with pasturable lands such as heaths). · Of land, under cultivation (within any quinquennial period) for the production of crops sown and harvested within the same agricultural year (contrasted with permanently-cropped lands such as orchards).

noun

Land that can be cropped (i.e., land that is arable); land that is being cropped (i.e., land that is in the cropping phase of a crop rotation, currently being cropped rather than used as pasture or fallow).

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

From Middle English arable, from Middle French arable, from Old French arable, from Latin arābilis, formed from arō (“plow”) + -bilis (“able to be”). Cognate with earable (“arable”).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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        "3": "arable"
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    },
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    },
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        "3": "arable"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French arable"
    },
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        "3": "arābilis"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin arābilis"
    },
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    ],
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    ],
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    ]
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        "Of land, able to be plowed or tilled, capable of growing crops (traditionally contrasted with pasturable lands such as heaths).",
        "Of land, under cultivation (within any quinquennial period) for the production of crops sown and harvested within the same agricultural year (contrasted with permanently-cropped lands such as orchards)."
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      "glosses": [
        "Land that can be cropped (i.e., land that is arable); land that is being cropped (i.e., land that is in the cropping phase of a crop rotation, currently being cropped rather than used as pasture or fallow)."
      ],
      "tags": [
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  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for arable →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
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Import run
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Permanent entry ID
w-YXJhYmxl