That fits. Agreed: but, as with my example, it doesn't always work the other way round. Befriendable. It's a logical extension, although I can't find it in a dictionary. Delight IN yes, but not delect (or delight) it.. Hmm, pleasurable is another. If something is pleasurable I should be able to pleasure IT. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Usually if something is endurable it can be endured, rather than it can endure... This fits. This also fits. I can't profit it.
I can see that, but I thought that what Dywyddyr meant to point out was that sometimes you can't extract an existing verb from 'verb-able'. I thought the 'rule' was something like this: 'verb-able': either able of providing 'verb' or able of being 'verb-ed'.
That's what I meant: you can't "dure" something that is durable, the way you can't "delect" something that is delectable.
Close: if something is describable you can describe it. If it's indescribable you can't indescribe it. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Likewise indecipherable...
If something is debateable I can debate it. If something is driveable I can drive it. If something is inscrutable why can't I (in)scrute it?
The negations were made from the already existing adjectives describable and decipherable, not directly from verbs.
For one, "veritable" is borrowed. For two, we can still understand it as "being truly or very much so." A verb can also be a phrase, like to take pleasure in to delight in to believe in to take to heart to keep in mind to be red/yellow/green to be true/false etc. Not just to read, to protect, to write, etc. When you see an adjective with -able/ible, try to imagine what verb or verbal phrase might be implied in it.
The pair is scrutable - inscrutable. In either case, you either scrutinize it, or you don't scrutinize it.
Simply as the OP - the word "delectable" came up in conversation and I (drawing on my hacker heritage) replied "Sure, I could delect it all night..."[sup]1[/sup] It then got me thinking (since the retort was: that's not even a real word!). 1 It's a hacker truism that all verbs can be nouned and all nouns can be verbed, as explained here.
Pfft, that would be (in)scrutinisable. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If something is scrutable (and I did check - it IS a real word [new to me]) then it can be "scruted": understood through study and observation/ searched.
You could in Latin. The problem (sort of) is that in English, there are many words from Latin, at varying degrees of anglicization. This is why an adjective can be almost Latin (such as delectable), but the according verb can be English (to delight; to take delight in).
Here's another one: tangible. If something is tangible, you can touch it. Other than that, does my explanation in post 36 satisfy your interest in this topic?
Then that isn't one. Since you can "tange" it. It depends. Yes you've explained why and how we have such words, but it doesn't "fix" them. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If something's effable can I eff it?