arable

English

Etymology

From Middle English arable, from Old French arable, from Latin arābilis, formed from arō (“plow”) + -bilis (“able to be”). Cognate with earable (“arable”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæɹəbl̩/

Adjective

arable (comparative more arable, superlative most arable)

1. (agriculture, of land) Able to be plowed or tilled, capable of growing crops (traditionally contrasted with pasturable lands such as heaths).
   • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 6, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     And again, since no animal now stole, it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land […]

2. (agriculture, NGO jargon, of land) Under cultivation (within any quinquennial period) for the production of crops sown and harvested within the same agricultural year (contrasted with permanently-cropped lands such as orchards).

Translations

suitable for cultivation

• Bulgarian: орна (bg) (orna)
• Catalan: cultivable
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 可耕的 (kě gēng de), (arable land) 耕地 (zh) (gēngdì)

• Czech: orný (cs) m
• Danish: dyrkbar
• Dutch: bebouwbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: kultivebla
• Finnish: viljelyskelpoinen
• French: arable (fr), cultivable (fr)
• German: bebaubar
• Hungarian: művelhető (hu)
• Indonesian: layak tanam

• Interlingue: arabil, plugabil
• Irish: arúil
• Italian: arabile
• Maori: tāmata
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dyrkbar

  Nynorsk: dyrkbar

• Polish: orny (pl) m
• Portuguese: arável
• Romanian: arabil (ro) m or n
• Russian: па́хотный (ru) (páxotnyj)
• Spanish: arable, cultivable (es)
• Swedish: odlingsbar

Anagrams

• Arbela, Barela, ablare

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French

Etymology

From Old French arable, from Latin arābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ʁabl/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

arable (plural arables)

1. arable

Further reading

• “arable” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• areable, erable

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French arable, borrowed itself from Latin arābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /arˈaːbəl/, /ɛːrˈaːbəl/

Adjective

arable

1. (Late Middle English) arable

Descendants

• English: arable, earable

References

• “arāble (adj.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-10-03.

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Old French

Etymology

From Latin arābilis.

Adjective

arable m (oblique and nominative feminine singular arable)

1. arable

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin arābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈɾable/, [aˈɾaβle]

Adjective

arable (plural arables)

1. arable

Related terms

• arar

Further reading

• “arable” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.