Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Fit to drink.
  • noun A beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Drinkable; suitable for drinking.
  • Hence Liquid; flowing.
  • noun Anything that is drinkable; a drink.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Fit to be drunk; drinkable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Good for drinking without fear of poisoning or disease.
  • noun Any drinkable liquid; a beverage.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any liquid suitable for drinking
  • adjective suitable for drinking

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin pōtābilis, from Latin pōtāre, to drink, from pōtus, a drink; see pō(i)- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French potable, from Latin pōtābilis, from pōtō ("I drink").

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Examples

Comments

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  • I found it in an article entitled "Water, water everywhere" on Interactive Investor, by Ceri Jones:

    The solutions of choice are membrane-based technologies such as water purification, seawater desalination and membrane bioreactor waste water treatment which can turn alternative sources into potable water, as well as generating water of higher purity.

    May 11, 2007

  • Also in the Jeopardy category "potent potables".

    May 12, 2007

  • Interesting comparison of etymology with potamic going on over there on that page...

    March 6, 2008