arable
[ar-uh-buh l]
- capable of producing crops; suitable for farming; suited to the plow and for tillage: arable land; arable soil.
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- land that can be or is cultivated.
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Origin of arable
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for arable
Contemporary Examples
Water, food and arable land will be more scarce, cities more crowded and hunger more widespread.
You will, by accident listening to the show, become an expert-not-really in matters of arable farming, organic crops, and milking.
Historical Examples
Tusser also describes this use of land alternately as pasture and arable.
The Enclosures in EnglandHarriett Bradley
This addition to the arable land has been a great boon to the people.
Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877James Kennedy
Out of the arable land he took only what was his due, and refused to take more.
The Forged Coupon and Other StoriesLeo Tolstoy
The quantity of cereals has increased in proportion to the arable land.
The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should KnowThomas Forsyth Hunt
He gave them arable land to sow corn in, and let them apply their crops to their own use.
Erling the BoldR.M. Ballantyne
arable
- (of land) being or capable of being tilled for the production of crops
- of, relating to, or using such landarable farming
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- arable land or farming
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Word Origin
C15: from Latin arābilis that can be ploughed, from arāre to plough
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for arable
adj.
early 15c., "suitable for plowing" (as opposed to pasture- or wood-land), from Old French arable (12c.), from Latin arabilis, from arare "to plow," from PIE *are- "to plow" (cf. Greek aroun, Old Church Slavonic orja, Lithuanian ariu "to plow;" Gothic arjan, Old English erian, Middle Irish airim, Welsh arddu "to plow;" Old Norse arþr "a plow"). Replaced by late 18c. native erable, from Old English erian "to plow," from the same PIE source.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper