Nonfishable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Not capable of being caught or fished due to various factors affecting the habitat or population
2. Describing a body of water where fishing is restricted or banned for ecological reasons
3. Referring to species or locations where fishing is deemed impractical or illegal for conservation efforts

Etymology: "Nonfishable" is a plain formation: the prefix "non-," meaning "not," attached to "fishable," which itself is "fish" with the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being." Put together, the word describes water that cannot be fished. The "non-" prefix has been productive in English for centuries, so this is a transparent compound rather than a borrowed term. The adjective is more specialized in use than its parts suggest. A body of water might be called nonfishable when fishing is closed to protect stocks or habitat, so the word carries a regulatory or conservation sense rather than a purely physical one. The meaning rests on a human decision, not on the water's nature: the same lake is fishable one season and nonfishable the next.