PERMANENT SOURCE RECORD
ALL SOURCES ↗BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-legible
SOURCE
RECORD.
One work. Every claim that depends on it. No citation without a consequence you can inspect.
10 PUBLIC LINKS INTO THE GRAPH.
This count excludes duplicate dossier-path citations. Open the claims below to see exactly how the source is used.
historical dictionarymw-legible
Legible — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use
- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
- DOI
- Not recorded
- SOURCE TYPE
- historical dictionary
- EXTERNAL RECORD
- OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
011
CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS
RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
RANK 197GRADE A−supports
Legible belongs to gathering and reading.
Late Latin legibilis means able to be read and comes from legere, the Latin gather, select, and read family.
*leǵ-
*leǵ- → legere → legibilis → legible → legible
EtymologyDocuments legibilis from legere “to read.”
legible dossier ↗truth record ↗82UNVEILING
021
SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT
DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
resolvedsupportsestablished
Did legible begin as a word for general understandability?
The secure formation is literal reading: Late Latin legibilis from legere “to read.” Discernible and understandable are later or extended senses, not the morphological source.
Etymology and definitionsDocuments legibilis from legere and distinguishes readable from figurative discernibility.
033
CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS
EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
EDGE 448supportsestablished
legible → legible
Present-Day English → Middle English · historical continuation
- SOUND
- The Middle English learned form stabilizes as modern legible with later English stress and vowel development.
- MEANING
- Literal readability remains primary while discernibility and understandability become figurative extensions.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster · American Heritage editors
Word History and First Known UseDocuments Middle English ancestry, modern senses, and a fifteenth-century horizon.
EDGE 449supportsestablished
legible → legibilis
Middle English → Latin · borrowing
- SOUND
- Middle English legible borrows Late Latin legibilis with English phonological adaptation.
- MEANING
- The ability to be read remains the inherited meaning.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster · American Heritage editors
Etymology: Middle English from Late Latin legibilisDocuments the learned borrowing.
EDGE 450supportsestablished
legibilis → legere
Latin → Latin · derivation
- SOUND
- Late Latin legibilis is formed from Latin legere “to read” with an ability suffix.
- MEANING
- The activity of reading becomes the quality of being readable.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster · American Heritage · Etymonline editors
Etymology: legibilis from legereDocuments the Latin reading formation.
041
LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS
WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE
legibleSOURCE-REPORTED
legible
Merriam-Webster source-reported English record
OPEN WITNESS 120 ↗051
COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE
COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES
lecture
EnglishLatin reading-family cousin through legere
063
GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS
JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
stage 2supports
Roman and Late Latin world
Documents the Latin reading formation.
Etymology: legibilis from legere · broadstage 3supports
England
Places the English word in the fifteenth century.
Word History and First Known Use · regionalstage 4supports
Global English
Documents literal and figurative modern senses.
Definitions · global070
NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE
No non-genealogical context link currently cites this source.
081
WORD-FAMILY REUSE
DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE
3 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.