Curableness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The property of a health condition that permits successful treatment options The state in which ailments can be effectively addressed and cured The characteristic of a medical issue that is manageable and capable of resolution through therapy
2. The quality of a disease or condition that enables it to be healed or successfully treated
3. The characteristic of a health problem allowing it to be completely resolved through medical intervention

Etymology: "Curableness" is a plain formation: the adjective "curable" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn it into a noun for a quality or state. "Curable" itself comes from "cure," which traces back through Old French "cure" to Latin "cura," meaning care or concern, and the adjective carries the sense of something that can be restored to health through treatment. Adding "-ness" to adjectives is one of English's most productive ways of naming a quality, so "curableness" simply names the state of being curable. The suffix "-ness" descends from an Old English noun ending that attached to adjectives such as "good" and "dark" to produce "goodness" and "darkness." Because it is so regular, English speakers can form such nouns on demand, and "curableness" belongs to that large family of abstract nouns that describe how far a thing has the property an adjective names.