Supple

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈsʌpəl/

Definitions

1. Capable of bending or flexing without breaking ; able to move, bend, or adapt with ease and grace
2. Easily bent, folded, or twisted without damage ; characterized by smooth, effortless motion or adaptability
3. Having a soft, pliant texture that yields readily to pressure ; demonstrating smoothness and ease in movement or action

Etymology: The adjective "supple" carries a faint trace of begging on its bones. Its ancestor is the Latin "supplex," meaning "suppliant" or "submissive," used of someone kneeling in humble petition. That word was built from "sub-," meaning "under," joined to a second element whose exact identity is uncertain. Scholars have proposed "plicare," "to bend" (the same root that gives "complex" and "pliant"), or "placare," "to placate." Either way, the original picture is of a person bowing low, not of a limb flexing. The word reached English through Old French "souple," which meant "soft, lithe, yielding," and entered Middle English in that form. Its sense drifted from the posture of the supplicant toward the quality of bending easily. The shift is a neat one: a body that yields to another's will became a body that yields to pressure, and then a material or a muscle that simply bends without resistance.

Synonyms: flexible, pliant, limber, soft, elastic

Antonyms: stiff, rigid, inflexible, hard, unyielding