difficulty. _Able_ is a common English word, the meaning of which is much
better understood than its origin. Horne Tooke supposes it to have come
from the Gothic noun _abal_, signifying _strength_; and consequently avers,
that it "has nothing to do with the Latin adjective _habilis, fit_, or
_able_, from which our etymologists erroneously derive it."--_Diversions of
Purley_, Vol. ii, p. 450. This I suppose the etymologists will dispute with
him. But whatever may be its true derivation, no one can well deny that
_able_, as a suffix, belongs most properly, if not exclusively, to _verbs_;
for most of the words formed by it, are plainly a sort of verbal
adjectives. And it is evident that this author is right in supposing that
English words of this termination, like the Latin verbals in _bilis_, have,
or ought to have, such a signification as may justify the name which he
gives them, of "_potential passive adjectives_;" a signification in which
the English and the Latin derivatives exactly correspond. Thus
_dis'soluble_ or _dissolv'able_ does not mean _able to dissolve_, but
_capable of being dissolved_; and _divisible_ or _dividable_ does not mean
_able to divide_, but _capable of being divided_.

OBS. 18.--As to the application of this suffix to nouns, when we consider
the signification of the words thus formed, its propriety may well be
doubted. It is true, however, that nouns do sometimes assume something of
the nature of verbs, so as to give rise to adjectives that are of a
participial character; such, for instance, as _sainted, bigoted, conceited,
gifted, tufted_. Again, of such as _hard-hearted, good-natured,
cold-blooded_, we have an indefinite number. And perhaps, upon the same
principle, the formation of such words as _actionable, companionable,
exceptionable, marketable, merchantable, pasturable, treasonable_, and so
forth, may be justified, if care be taken to use them in a sense analogous
to that of the real verbals. But, surely, the meaning which is commonly
attached to the words _amicable, changeable, fashionable, favourable,
peaceable, reasonable, pleasurable, seasonable, suitable_, and some others,
would never be guessed from their formation. Thus, _suitable_ means
_fitting_ or _suiting_, and not _able to suit_, or _capable of being
suited_.

OBS. 19.--Though all words that terminate in _able_, used as a suffix, are
properly reckoned derivatives, rather than compounds, and in the former
class the separate me