arable

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæɹəbl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

arable (comparative more arable, superlative most arable)

1. (agriculture, of land) Able to be plowed or tilled, capable of growing crops (traditionally contrasted with pasturable lands such as heaths).
   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter VI, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC, page 50:

     And again, since no animal now stole, it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land […]

2. (agriculture, NGO jargon, 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).

Antonyms

• inarable

Derived terms

• nonarable

 

Translations

suitable for cultivation

• Azerbaijani: əkinəyararlı, əkinə yararlı
• Bulgarian: орна (bg) (orna)
• Catalan: cultivable
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 可耕的 (kě gēng de), (arable land) 耕地 (zh) (gēngdì)

• Czech: orný (cs) m
• Danish: dyrkbar
• Dutch: bebouwbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: kultivebla
• Finnish: viljelyskelpoinen
• French: arable (fr), cultivable (fr)
• German: bebaubar, anbaufähig, urbar (de)
• Hungarian: megművelt (hu), előkészített (hu), művelhető (hu)
• Indonesian: layak tanam
• Interlingua: arabile
• Irish: arúil
• Italian: arabile
• Latin: arvus
• Malayalam: കൃഷിയോഗ്യമായ (kr̥ṣiyōgyamāya)
• Maori: tāmata
• Middle English: arable, erable
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dyrkbar

  Nynorsk: dyrkbar

• Polish: orny (pl) m
• Portuguese: arável, agricultável (pt)
• Romanian: arabil (ro) m or n
• Russian: па́хотный (ru) (páxotnyj)
• Spanish: arable (es), cultivable (es)
• Swedish: odlingsbar (sv)
• Turkish: tarıma elverişli

Noun

arable (uncountable)

1. 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).

Anagrams

• Arbela, Barela, La Brea, ablare

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French arable, from Old French arable, from Latin arābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ʁabl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

arable (plural arables)

1. arable

Further reading

• “arable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• areable, arrable

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French arable, from Old French arable, borrowed from Latin arābilis. Equivalent to Middle French arer +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /arˈaːbəl/

Adjective

arable

1. (Late Middle English) arable

   Synonym: erable

Descendants

• English: arable

References

• “arāble, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-10-03.

Old French

Etymology

From Latin arābilis.

Adjective

arable m (oblique and nominative feminine singular arable)

1. arable

Descendants

• Middle French: arable
  • French: arable
  • → Middle English: arable, areable, arrable
    • English: arable

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin arābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈɾable/ [aˈɾa.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: a‧ra‧ble

Adjective

arable m or f (masculine and feminine plural arables)

1. arable

Related terms

• arar

 

Further reading

• “arable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28