English
ability
Ability comes from Middle English abilite, from Old French ablete, from Latin habilitās ‘aptness’, from habilis ‘apt, able’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhabeō1‘to have, possess’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhabilis2‘apt, fit, able’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhabilitās2‘aptness, ability’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ablete2
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500abilite2‘suitability, ability’
- Englishearliest quotation 1611ability2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin habilis
- 2 Wiktionary, English ability
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Then the disciples, euery man according to his abilitie,…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhabeōWiktionary, Latin habilis‘to have, possess’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhabilisWiktionary, English ability‘apt, fit, able’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhabilitāsWiktionary, English ability‘aptness, ability’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ableteWiktionary, English ability
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500abiliteWiktionary, English ability‘suitability, ability’
- Englishearliest quotation 1611abilityWiktionary, English ability. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Then the disciples, euery man according to his abilitie,…”
first attested First attested in the 1300s (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)
The story
First attested in the 1300s.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with ability, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ- ‘to grab, to take’
through Proto-Italic *habēō
- prohibitive ← prohibitif ← prohibitīvus ← prohibeō ← habeō
through Latin habeō ‘to have, possess’
- due ← dewe ← deü ← devoir ← dēbēre
- average ← avarie ← avarie ← avaria ← عَوَارِيَّة
- exhibition ← exhibicion ← exhibitio ← exhibeō
66 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun Suitableness.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “ability”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin habilis. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin habeō / ability