Etymograph

English

tellable

Tellable comes from Middle English tellabyll.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tellabyll1
  2. Englishtodaytellable1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English tellable

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tellabyllWiktionary, English tellable
  2. EnglishtodaytellableWiktionary, English tellable

Formed from tell + -able

Proto-Germanic *talō ‘narration, speech; number, calculation’

Proto-Germanic *taljaną ‘to enumerate, count; to recount, tell’

Proto-West Germanic *talljan ‘to count; to recount, tell’

Old English tellan ‘to count, calculate; to tell, narrate’

Middle English tellen ‘to count, tell’

English tell

Every English word from Middle English tellabyll

Today it means

adj That may be told

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tellable”. 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 / Middle English tellabyll / tellable

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