Wadeable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Shallow or calm enough to walk across on foot without swimming
2. Passable by wading through water rather than needing to swim or use a boat
3. Capable of being traversed by walking through water with the water not exceeding a person's depth

Etymology: "Wadeable" is about as plain as English word-building gets: the verb "wade" with the suffix "-able" attached, meaning capable of being waded through. "Wade" itself is an old word, traceable in English to Old English "wadan," meaning to go or move forward, often through water or mud, and the notion of walking through a shallow stretch of water has stayed central to it ever since. The suffix "-able" comes into English from Old French "-able," itself descended from Latin "-abilis," which attached to verbs to express capacity or fitness. Attaching it to "wade" produces a word that describes a river, ford or marsh you can cross on foot without swimming. The formation is transparent enough that speakers can coin or understand it on the spot, which is why it appears in everyday descriptions of landscape rather than in formal dictionaries of the period.

Synonyms: passable, crossable, fordable

Antonyms: impassable, uncrossable