Talk:inferable

Frequency of various forms

• Ngrams: inferable has always been the most common form; inferrable is about 1/3 as common, inferible and inferrible were about 2/3 as common in the 1800-1810 period, but since 1900 inferible has been less than 1/300th as common and inferrible has been steadily declining from maybe 1/5 to 1/20th as common. (For some reason, my link to (inferible*300),(inferrible*5),inferable,(inferrable*3) doesn't work; you can copy and paste that code, though.)
• BNC: inferable 4, inferrable 3, inferible 0, inferrible 0.
• COCA: inferable 1, inferrable 1, inferible 0, inferrible 0.

- -sche (discuss) 21:59, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

@-sche: I see. What further changes would you like to make? — I.S.M.E.T.A. 22:03, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Well, I'm not sure if 'inferrible' is obsolete, or if it's just archaic; the existence of reprints, which get counted in Ngrams according to the date of reprinting, makes obsolete words seem to continue to exist in ngrams at a low frequency like inferrible's. However, the lemma spelling of the -ible forms should be inferrible with two 'r's, since the form with one 'r' has always been rarer — orders of magnitude rarer for most of the time from 1700-2000 except the period ~1800-1840. - -sche (discuss) 22:10, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

@-sche: I trust you to make whatever changes you see fit. Re "archaic", however, are you sure that inferible and inferrible are used to impart archaism? I can't detect any such intent. And do you think that inferrible is an adaptation of the Latin īnferibilis or a homegrown coinage? — I.S.M.E.T.A. 22:25, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Etymology

(ɪnˈfɜːrəb(ə)l, ˈɪnfərɪb(ə)l) See also inferrible. [f. infer v., on the pattern of preferable, referable, from the corresp. Fr. words; but there is no F. inférable; L. analogy would require inferible; both L. and Fr. analogy, with the example of preferable, referable, transferable, require the stress to be on the first syllable; (ɪnˈfɜːrəb(ə)l), which is that of most dictionaries, would require the spelling inferrable: see inferrible.]
https://oed.com/oed2/00116223

--Backinstadiums (talk) 09:18, 12 May 2021 (UTC)