sufferable

English

Etymology

PIE word
*upó

From Middle English sufferable, souffrable (“bearable, endurable, tolerable; allowable, permissible; able to or willing to bear hardship; forbearing, long-suffering; calm, self-restrained, slow to anger; capable of suffering”), from Anglo-Norman sufferable, souffrable, and Old French souffrable, suffrable (“sufferable, tolerable”)), from Medieval Latin sufferābilis, from Latin sufferre + -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’). Sufferre is the present active infinitive of sufferō, subferō (“to bear or carry under; to bear, endure, suffer, undergo”), from sub- (prefix meaning ‘below, under’) + ferō (“to bear, carry; to endure, suffer, tolerate”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)). The English word is analysable as suffer +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌfəɹəb(ə)l/, /ˈsʌfɹəb(ə)l/
• Hyphenation: suf‧fer‧a‧ble

Adjective

sufferable (comparative more sufferable, superlative most sufferable) (archaic or obsolete)

1. Able to suffer, endure, or tolerate.

   Synonyms: tolerant, patient.

   Antonym: insufferable

   Coordinate term: permissive (denotes negative judgment upon the toleration)

2. Capable of being endured, tolerated, permitted, or allowed.

   Synonyms: endurable, tolerable, permissible, allowable

   Antonyms: insufferable, unendurable, intolerable, impermissible, unallowable

   • 2001, Walter Prytulak, On Pain Suffering: Reminiscences, Musings and Reflections, page 58:

     Greek philosophers put it bluntly: "The best thing in the world is not to be born; but the second best is to die." Up to the point of suicide the suffering continues to be sufferable.

Related terms

• sufferableness
• sufferably

Further reading

• “sufferable”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “sufferable”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.