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Origin and history of durable

durable(adj.)

late 14c., "having the quality of continuing long in being," from Old French durable (11c.) and directly from Latin durabilis "lasting, permanent," from durare "to harden," from durus "hard," from PIE *dru-ro-, suffixed variant form of root *deru- "be firm, solid, steadfast." From late 13c. as a surname (probably meaning "steadfast"). Related: Durably. Durable goods attested from 1930.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to durable

*deru-

also *dreu-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "be firm, solid, steadfast," with specialized senses "wood," "tree" and derivatives referring to objects made of wood.

It might form all or part of: betroth; Dante; dendrite; dendro-; dendrochronology; dour; Druid; drupe; dryad; dura mater; durable; durance; duration; duress; during; durum; endure; hamadryad; indurate; obdurate; perdurable; philodendron; rhododendron; shelter; tar (n.1) "viscous liquid;" tray; tree; trig (adj.) "smart, trim;" trim; troth; trough; trow; truce; true; trust; truth; tryst.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit dru "tree, wood," daru "wood, log, timber;" Greek drys "oak," drymos "copse, thicket," doru "beam, shaft of a spear;" Old Church Slavonic drievo "tree, wood," Serbian drvo "tree," drva "wood," Russian drevo "tree, wood," Czech drva, Polish drwa "wood;" Lithuanian drūtas "firm," derva "pine, wood;" Welsh drud, Old Irish dron "strong," Welsh derw "true," Old Irish derb "sure," Old Irish daur, Welsh derwen "oak;" Albanian drusk "oak;" Old English treo, treow "tree," triewe "faithful, trustworthy, honest."

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    Trends of durable

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    perdurable
    "long-lasting; permanent, imperishable," mid-13c. (implied in perdurably), from Old French pardurable "eternal, everlasting, perpetual" (12c.) and directly from Medieval Latin perdurabilis "lasting," from Latin perdurare "to last, hold out," from per-, intensive prefix, + durare
    transient
    c. 1600, "transitory, not durable," from Latin transientem (nominative transiens) "passing over or away," present participle...
    bionic
    The popular sense of "superhumanly gifted or durable" is from 1976, from U.S. television program "The Six Million Dollar...
    stable
    stable, estable "constant, steadfast, unchanging," from Latin stabilis "firm, steadfast, stable, fixed," figuratively "durable...
    serge
    In later use of a kind of strong, durable fabric, originally woven of silk, later of worsted....
    cypress
    popular name of a type of evergreen tree noted for its dense, dark foliage and durable, fragrant wood, native to southern...
    wool
    as opposed to dyed in the piece) is to be so before spinning, while the material is in its raw state, which has a more durable...
    plagiarism
    "the purloining or wrongful appropriation of another's ideas, writing, artistic designs, etc., and giving these forth as one's own" [Century Dictionary], 1620s, from -ism + plagiary (n.) "plagiarist, literary thief" (c. 1600), from Latin plagiarius "kidnapper, seducer, plunderer,
    contentment
    mid-15c., contentement, "satisfactory payment" (of a debt; a sense now obsolete), from Old French contentment, from contenter (see content (v.)). Meaning "That happiness which consists in being satisfied with present conditions" is from 1590s. Contentment is passive; satisfactio
    preposition
    late 14c., preposicioun, in grammar, "indeclinable part of speech regularly placed before and governing a noun in an oblique case and showing its relation to a verb, adjective, or other noun," from Latin praepositionem (nominative praepositio) "a putting before, a prefixing," nou

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    Dictionary entries near durable
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