Bendsome

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be bent easily without breaking, having a pliant and flexible quality
2. Describing something that yields readily when pressed or curved and can be shaped by bending
3. Pliable and supple, so that the object can be curved or folded without damage

Etymology: Bendsome is a plain English compound: "bend" plus the suffix "-some," which in Old English was "-sum," meaning "tending to" or "characterised by" (as in "handsome" or "wholesome"). Put together, the word describes something inclined to bend, or easily bent. Its ancestry runs back to a Proto-Indo-European root for "bend" and to a Proto-Germanic verb that spread through the Germanic languages, reaching Old English as "bendan." The suffix has a longer story than the word it sits on. Its ancestry goes back to a Proto-Indo-European element meaning "same" or "together," which passed into Germanic and then English, where it stopped being a free word and became a suffix. Because it attaches to many roots, English has produced a large family of adjectives this way, and "bendsome" is one of the more transparent members, with no sense shift to speak of.