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Sunday July 10, 2005

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potable \POH-tuh-buhl\ , adjective:
1. Fit to drink; suitable for drinking; drinkable.

noun:
1. A potable liquid; a beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.

If you drink from the spring, which is shaded by a fig tree, you will supposedly feel younger and more loving. Unfortunately, you may also feel sick: the government warns that the water is not potable.
-- Gene Burns, "The Stuff of Myths", The Atlantic, September 1999

The park has no showers or potable drinking water--we picked up bottled water in Kaunakakai.
-- Christopher Cottrell, "Molokai's Big Empty", Los Angeles Times, March 11, 2001

He indicates the places for peculiar edibles, and exquisite potables.
-- Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature

Also from California, some other off-the-beaten-path potables: the 1994 Gallo-Sonoma "Barrelli Creek" Valdiguie and the 1995 Pellegrini Carignane.
-- Michael Lonsford, "Potables will suit penny-pinching buyers", Houston Chronicle, November 20, 1997

Potable comes from Late Latin potabilis, from Latin potare, "to drink."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for potable

 

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