Fashionable

How to spell fashionable

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce fashionable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fashionable mean?

1. adjectiveFollowing the current style or popular taste, especially in dress, design, or behaviour.

Fashionable in a sentence

• She moved into a fashionable neighbourhood close to the river.

• The boutique stocks fashionable coats every autumn.

Where does fashionable come from?

Language of origin: French

The core word fashion came into English in the 1300s from the Old French facon, meaning a making, a shape, or a manner of doing something, which in turn descended from the Latin factionem, literally a making or a doing, built on the verb facere, to do or to make. In English fashion first meant the way a thing was made or its form, and only later narrowed to the modern sense of prevailing taste in dress and behaviour. The adjective fashionable was formed on English soil by adding the productive suffix -able, giving the meaning following or suited to the current fashion. The same Latin facere lies behind a whole family of relatives such as factory, manufacture, and faction, all carrying the idea of making. The spelling trap sits in the middle: writers must remember the -ion- of fashion is preserved intact before -able, so the word is fashion plus able and never the smoothed-down faShonable.

How the word is built

• fashion (style, manner)
• -able (adjective suffix: capable of, suited to)