Leachable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be washed out of soil, ore or rock by water or another liquid passing through it
2. Describing a substance that can be drained away from its surrounding material by percolating fluid
3. Susceptible to being dissolved and carried off from solid material as liquid seeps through

Etymology: "Leachable" is about as plain as English etymology gets: it is the verb "leach" with the suffix "-able" attached, meaning capable of being leached. The suffix comes from Latin "-abilis," which English took in through French and used freely to build adjectives from verbs. The verb "leach" has an older and more surprising life than its modern chemistry sense suggests. It came into Middle English from Old English "leccan," meaning to water or moisten, and its sense of draining liquid through a porous material, such as wood ash soaked to extract lye, developed from that root. Soap and glassmaking relied on this process for centuries, so the word grew up in the workshop before it reached the laboratory. Words built this way are often younger than their parts suggest. "Leachable" describes a substance that can be dissolved out by water or another liquid percolating through it, a notion that matters in soil science and environmental monitoring, where pollutants that leach into groundwater are a major concern.

Synonyms: soluble, extractable

Antonyms: insoluble