Re: Spelling of "cachable"

I'm not a real doofus, but I play one at a national laboratory. (BAISLEY@fndcd.fnal.gov)
Wed, 3 Sep 1997 11:47:19 -0500


English (American, at least) tolerates both the collapsed -able and
uncollapsed -eable suffixes to particular verbs ending in "e", some of
which are marked with an exclamation point in the table, below. But,
from this admittedly incomplete list (though not as incomplete as Rob's
;-), it would seem that the -able form enjoys a 2-to-1 advantage. And
the majority of the -eable forms clearly keep the "e" to soften the
preceding "c" or "g", or to preserve the length of the preceding vowel
(drive, eg).

I like the look of cacheable better than cachable, personally. I think
it's different just because of its Frenchness. And cachable looks like
catchable misspelled. But routeable would be a more British form, and
routable more American, IMHO. Routable gets my vote anyway.

-able forms -eable forms

abuse acknowledge
achieve arrange
admire bridge
adore change
advise charge
agree deceive
analyse dislike!
analyze drive
appease efface
argue embrace
assume enforce
biodegrade enlarge
bribe exchange
compare face
condense gauge
console handle
construe hole
consume judge
criticize knowledge
decompose like!
diagnose love!
dislike! manage
dispense marriage
dispose mine!
disprove name!
dispute notice
disrepute peace
educe place
educate pledge
erase pronounce
escape raise!?
examine sacrifice
excise salvage
excuse seduce
exercise service
extradite shake!
fade size!
forgive smoke!
format? spare
foresee trace
imagine unchange
impass? unshakeable!
improve whistle
incline
include
increase
inflate
lie
license
like!
lose
love!
make
manipulate
manufacture
maul (malleable)
mine!
name!
narrate
observe
oppose
organize
oxidize
placate (placable)
please
practice? (practicable)
prove
pulverize
purchase
quote
raise!?
rate
realize
receive
reimburse
relate
resolve
scale
secure
see
shake!
sing
size!
slide
smoke!
statute
sterilise
sterilize
sue
subdivide
substitute
suppose
transfuse
transpose
traverse
unforesee
unplease?
unprove
unshakeable!
use
value
vaporize
wire
write

Cheers,
Wayne

A diminutive banker from Prague walks into the British Embassy
seeking asylum, and asks, "Can you cache a small Czech?"