Dissolvable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the ability to be mixed into a solution when combined with a liquid
2. Able to be broken down and incorporated into a liquid to form a solution
3. Describes a substance that can be absorbed or dispersed completely in a solvent

Etymology: "Dissolvable" is a plain built word: "dissolve" with the suffix "-able", meaning "capable of being dissolved." The suffix has a longer ancestry than the verb it attaches to. It descends from Latin "-abilis", which combined with verbs to mean "able to be done," and reached English through Old French "-able" and Middle English "-able," so the ending was already productive in English long before "dissolvable" was formed. The verb "dissolve" carries the more striking history. It comes from Latin "dissolvere," literally "to loosen apart," from "dis-" meaning apart and "solvere" meaning to loosen or untie. That sense of untying is still visible in the word: a knot that comes undone and a solid that breaks apart into its parts are the same kind of event. Earlier, the root behind "solvere" stretches back to Proto-Indo-European, but the English story is the Latin one: a physical loosening that became the chemical sense of a solid spreading into a liquid.

Synonyms: soluble, dispersible, melting, breakable, decomposable

Antonyms: insoluble, indissoluble, stable, solid, unyielding