Maintainable is not a jargon word

Maintainable is not a jargon word

[Robert Dewar]

Antoine said

"Full OK with you here.  You could add "maintainable" if it sounded English."

Well I cannot speak for what "sounds" English, especially to a non-native
speaker (just a guess from your name :-) but maintainable is a perfectly
good English word, and the comment above sent me downstairs to lug up
volume IX of OED 2.

Maintainable has its own 4" entry on page 225. The definition is

"That can be maintained, kept up, held, defended etc."

which sounds quite reasonably applicable I would say! The first reference
is quite early, even for the OED, it is 1439 Rolls of Parlt. V. 22/1 
"No action to be mayntenable ayenste the seid named Executours.

By 1541, in Act 33 Hen VIII c 21, we have something closer to the modern
spelling "mainteinable", and the modern spelling is quoted for the first
time in 1680 in the London Gazette.

So you can use this word without fear of being in computer jargon mode.
The OED also lists maintainability with a separate entry, although the
first quote is more recent (Scientific American, 1943). OED also allows
maintainableness with a first quote in 1727, another in 1865, but no
later quotes, so one may deduce that maintainability is the preferred
modern form.

P.S. All the other common forms like Maintainer, Maintenance etc all have
first class entries of their own in the OED, with old quotes (in fact
maintainer goes back to 1330, one of the earliest quotes I have run across).

P.P.S. The second (obsolete) meaning of maintainable is fun:

"Affording a livelihood"

It would be nice if this applied to the word in software use, but I am afraid
that far to often people afford their livelihoods by making sure their code
is NOT maintainable (except by themselves) :-)

Re: Maintainable is not a jargon word

[Robert A Duff]

In article <dewar.839331836@schonberg>, Robert Dewar <dewar@cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>By 1541, in Act 33 Hen VIII c 21, we have something closer to the modern
>spelling "mainteinable", and the modern spelling is quoted for the first
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>time in 1680 in the London Gazette.

I guess I'm a bit behind the times.

- Bob

Re: Maintainable is not a jargon word

[Robert Dewar]

Bob Duff said

"In article <dewar.839331836@schonberg>, Robert Dewar <dewar@cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>By 1541, in Act 33 Hen VIII c 21, we have something closer to the modern
>spelling "mainteinable", and the modern spelling is quoted for the first
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>time in 1680 in the London Gazette.

I guess I'm a bit behind the times."



I don't get that. Read carefully what I said, the 1541 quote uses the
spelling mainteinable, but it is not till 1680 that the modern spelling
maintainable appears. 

Are you saying that you are behind the times because you are still using
some other spelling that "maintainable"? :-)