Recyclable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Suitable for processing and reusing to produce new items
2. Able to be collected and reprocessed into new products instead of being discarded
3. Fit for recovery and transformation into raw materials for manufacturing again

Etymology: Recyclable is a plain modern formation: "recycle" with the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being." The verb "recycle" is itself built from "re-," meaning "again," and "cycle," which comes ultimately from the ancient Greek "kuklos," meaning "circle" or "wheel." So the word describes something that can be put back through the circle once more. The "cycle" part has a surprisingly literal past. The Greek "kuklos" passed into Late Latin as "cyclus" and then into English, where it first meant a complete round of time or a series of events returning to their starting point. Only later did "recycle" apply the idea to materials, so a bottle or a newspaper completes a loop back into use. The suffix "-able" arrived through Latin "-abilis," which turned verbs into adjectives expressing possibility, and reached English through Old French. Attaching it to "recycle" produced an adjective that means fit for reuse.

Synonyms: reusable, recoverable, salvageable, renewable, sustainable

Antonyms: nonrecyclable, waste, disposable, perishable, unsustainable