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Origin and history of accessible

accessible(adj.)

c. 1400, "affording access, capable of being approached or reached," from Old French accessible and directly from Late Latin accessibilis, verbal adjective from Latin accessus "a coming near, an approach; an entrance," from accedere "approach, go to, come near, enter upon" (see accede).

The meaning "easy to reach" is from 1640s; in reference to art or writing, "able to be readily understood," by 1961. Related: Accessibility.

accessible

also from c. 1400

Entries linking to accessible

accede(v.)

"come to or arrive at" (a state, position, office, etc.), early 15c., acceden, from Latin accedere "approach, go to, come near, enter upon," from assimilated form of ad "to" (see ad-) + cedere "go, move, withdraw" (from PIE root *ked- "to go, yield"). Latin ad- usually became ac- before "k" sounds. Related: Acceded; acceding.

accessibility(n.)

"condition or quality of admitting approach," 1758, from French accessibilité (from Late Latin accessibilitas), or else a native formation from accessible + -ity.

inaccessible(adj.)

"not to be reached or approached," early 15c., from Old French inaccessible (14c.), from Late Latin inaccessibilis "unapproachable," from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + accessibilis "approachable" (see accessible). Related: Inaccessibly; inaccessibility. Earlier in same sense was unaccessible (c. 1400).

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    Vulgate
    So called because the translations made the book accessible to the common people of ancient Rome....
    convenient
    Sense of "at hand, easily accessible" (1849) is marked in OED as "Ireland and U.S."...
    Elgin Marbles
    damage of that monument, was in itself an act of vandalism; but their transportation to England at a time when Greece was accessible...
    open-minded
    also openminded, "having an unreserved mind; frank, candid," also "having a mind accessible to new views, not narrow-minded...
    climax
    , and is said to have been promoted from c. 1900 by birth-control pioneer Marie Stopes (1880-1958) and others as a more accessible...
    coffee
    "drink made from the ground and roasted seeds of a tree originally native to Arabia and Abyssinia," c. 1600, from Dutch koffie, from Turkish kahveh, from Arabic qahwah "coffee," which Arab etymologists connected with a word meaning "wine," but it is perhaps rather from the Kaffa
    tangle
    mid-14c., tanglen, "encumber, enmesh, knit together confusedly," a shortening of entangle in some cases, in others probably a nasalized variant of tagilen "to involve in a difficult situation, entangle," from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Swedish taggla "to disorder,"
    preposition
    late 14c., preposicioun, in grammar, "indeclinable part of speech regularly placed before and governing a noun in an oblique case and showing its relation to a verb, adjective, or other noun," from Latin praepositionem (nominative praepositio) "a putting before, a prefixing," nou
    conspicuous
    1540s, "open to view, catching the eye," from Latin conspicuus "visible, open to view; attracting attention, striking," from conspicere "to look at, observe, see, notice," from assimilated form of com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + specere "to look at" (from PIE
    sermon
    c. 1200, sermoun, sarmun, "a discourse upon a text of scripture; that which is preached," from Anglo-French sermoun, Old French sermon, sermun "speech, words, discourse; church sermon, homily" (10c.) and directly from Latin sermonem (nominative sermo) "continued speech, conversat

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