Labellable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be marked with a label, tag, or name that identifies or describes it
2. Capable of being assigned a descriptive tag or category so that it can be recognized
3. Suitable for having a label attached to indicate what it is or what it contains

Etymology: "Labellable" is simple in structure: it is "label" with the suffix "-able" attached, meaning capable of being labelled. The suffix itself has a long pedigree. It descends from Latin "-abilis", which turned verbs into adjectives meaning "able to be done", and reached English by way of Old French "-able" in the Middle English period. Because English can attach "-able" to almost any verb or noun-based verb, it has been used freely to coin new words like this one. The base word "label" is the more interesting part. It traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root (reconstructed as "*-dʰlom") that passed through Proto-Italic into Latin, where it shaped words for strips and bands. The English noun "label" appeared in the Middle English period, originally referring to a strip or ribbon attached to a document, a sense that survives in the legal "label" attached to a seal. Only later did it come to mean a tag or slip of paper identifying an object.