Testabilities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The qualities or characteristics that indicate the capacity for something to be tested or evaluated effectively
2. The potential or ability of a product or system to undergo testing in a meaningful way
3. Aspects that determine how easily something can be subjected to assessment or trials

Etymology: The word "testability" is built from "test" and the suffix "-ability." The first part is the English noun "test," a word of its own from Old French "test" (a pot used for refining metals), which came from Latin "testum," an earthenware vessel. A test, in the sense of a trial or examination, grew out of that idea of putting something into a vessel to see what it was made of. The suffix has a longer and more tangled path. "-ability" descends from Latin "-abilitas," formed from "-abilis" ("-able," meaning capable of being acted upon), and reached English through Middle French "-abilité" and Middle English "-ablete." English then made "-ability" a productive ending of its own, so that new formations like "testability" could be coined by attaching it to a verb stem. Plural "testabilities" simply names several such qualities at once.