Rescuable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be saved or brought to safety from a dangerous or harmful situation
2. Possessing the quality of being recoverable from peril or threat through intervention
3. Describes something or someone that can be helped or preserved from risk or damage

Etymology: "Rescuable" is about as transparent as English formation gets: "rescue" plus the suffix "-able," which turns a verb into an adjective meaning "able to be" the thing the verb describes. So a rescuable person or animal is one who can be saved from harm. The suffix itself is inherited from Latin "-abilis" through Old French, and it has been used so freely in English that it attaches to native and borrowed verbs alike. The verb underneath it does the heavier lifting. "Rescue" came into English from Old French "rescoure," which was built on the Latin prefix "re-" and "excutere," meaning to shake out or drive off. Its earliest sense was legal and forceful: taking a prisoner back from custody by force. The gentler idea of saving someone from danger grew out of that meaning, so "rescuable" carries the older notion of wrenching something back from those who hold it.

Synonyms: salvageable, recoverable, retrievable

Antonyms: hopeless, irrecoverable