Catchable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being caught, captured, or seized
2. Susceptible to being trapped or apprehended
3. Able to be grabbed, detected, or secured

Etymology: "Catchable" is a plain formation: the verb "catch" with the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being," so something catchable is one that can be caught. The suffix itself has a long pedigree. It descends from Latin "-ābilis" and entered English through Old French "-able," so the same ending appears in words like "readable" and "movable." The verb "catch" has a more tangled ancestry. It traces back through Anglo-Norman "cachier" and Old French "chacier," which came from Vulgar Latin "captiāre," a frequentative form of Latin "capere," "to take" or "to seize." That Latin verb also gave English "capture" and "captive," so "catch" and "capture" are related words that arrived by different routes. Middle English "cacchen" carried the sense of chasing and seizing, and the word's chase-and-grab meaning is what makes "catchable" a natural description of something that can be pursued and taken.

Synonyms: obtainable, graspable

Antonyms: uncatchable