Exchangeable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be interchanged or traded without losing inherent worth
2. Pertaining to items or values that allow for mutual substitution without diminishing their value
3. Fit to be swapped or replaced by another without losing value

Etymology: "Exchangeable" is built from "exchange" and the suffix "-able," so its story is largely the story of that suffix. The suffix began as the Latin "-ābilis," which carried the sense of "able to be" something, and it reached English by way of Old French, where it appeared as "-able." Middle English adopted it freely, and English speakers then attached it to verbs they already had, so that "exchange" could take it just as "move" became "movable." The Latin ancestry runs deeper than the immediate suffix. Latin "-ābilis" descends from earlier forms built on a root meaning something like "to do" or "to be fitted for," and the same ending turns up across the Romance languages. That is why so many English adjectives of this type feel like they arrived as a complete, ready-made family rather than one word at a time.

Synonyms: interchangeable, substitutable, convertible

Antonyms: nonexchangeable, fixed