Vendable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being sold or offered for sale under normal market conditions
2. Suitable or acceptable for sale to potential buyers or customers
3. Able to be marketed or exchanged in commerce due to desirability or legality

Etymology: "Vendable" is an alternative spelling of "vendible," and both come from the Latin "vendibilis," meaning "able to be sold," built on the verb "vendere," "to sell." The root shows up in a family of English words that all carry the sense of exchange: "vend," "vendor," and "vendue," the last an old word for a public auction that entered English from the Dutch "vendu," a borrowing from the same Latin verb's family. The key to the word is its suffix. The Latin "-bilis" ending means "capable of being" and turned a verb into an adjective describing what could be done to something. English has many such pairs, such as "readable" and "visible," so "vendable" follows a familiar pattern: "vend" plus "-able," describing goods that a buyer will take.

Synonyms: marketable, saleable, sellable

Antonyms: unsellable, unmarketable