The impetus for this post takes me back over ten years, when in my senior year of my B.A., my roommate and I had a friendly disputation over APP-plick-a-bull versus ah-PLICK-a-bull. Trouble is, I'm not sure which side I took. I do remember that even though I preferred one version (I suspect the former), that I considered both versions to be commonplace, if not equally acceptable. Turns out I was wrong. As it stands right now, 32/53 of you (60.4%) have chosen ah-PLICK-a-bull (second-syllable stress, patterning with 'despicable'). APP-plick-a-bull is considerably less common, while a goodly number of you said that you use both. Nowadays, I use both varieties, as shown by the fact that I can't even be sure what side of the damn argument I was on. I suspect I still use the first variety somewhat more commonly, but as with many of these polls, I'll be damned if I can sort it out in my mind, and I certainly can't be objective about my usage now that I've done the poll.

So, what's going on? I couldn't detect any evident regional bias behind the choice of stress, and no strong age bias (however, the APP-plick-a-bull folks tend to be in the 30+ age range). Because it's a word that's fairly common in speech, it's extremely likely, then, that all of you have heard both versions, whether or not you noticed the distinction. Most dictionaries list both versions without any prejudice one way or the other - most list the first-syllable stressed version first, however.


The suffix '-able' is a little weird. It is certainly a productive English suffix that can be appended to many verbs to mean "able to be Xed" (e.g., taxable, payable, allowable - can you tell what I've been doing lately?), and able is easily understood in these cases as being derived from the ordinary English word able. Not so fast, though. In fact, there are literally hundreds of words using the suffix able or -ible (and two, along with their prefixed variants, that use -uble - can you name them?), but which aren't connected to able at all, but are rather Latin-derived (or French-derived via Latin) words whose etymology is from words ending in -abilis, -ibilis, or -ubilis, the adjectival forms of certain Latin verbs. These aren't connected *in any way* with the English word able, which comes to us via Latin, to be sure, but from the noun habilitas. Applicable is sort of mixed up in all this: the 'c' in the stem tells us that it's from Latin applicare, not directly from English apply, but there was no Latin word *applicabilis - it's sort of a mixture of Italian/French derivatives and the trusty -able suffix. Really, then, there are two English suffixes here:
a) -able, derived from English able and meaning 'able to be Xed';
b) -able/-ible/-uble, derived from Latin adjectival suffixes and *also* meaning 'able to be Xed'.


English stress patterns are odd and unpredictable, as we have seen already with corollary and respite. But whereas those two words vary dialectally (British vs. North American), applicable varies diachronically - while it was once the case that most people pronounced it with first-syllable stress 'APP-plick-a-bull', it is undergoing rightward, or 'progressive' stress shift: the shift is moving forward from the first to the second syllable, towards the end of the word. (There is also 'regressive stress shift', which occurs more rarely, but apparently 'capitalist' was originally pronounced ka-PIT-ah-list). Progressive stress shift is actually going on in a set of '-able' words: applicable, formidable, and hospitable all show quite a bit of variation today. Apparently in the past lamentable and despicable were similarly pronounced with first-syllable stress, but the process is more or less complete with those words. (One respondent did indicate that they use DESS-spick-a-bull, but this is rather uncommon).

Clearly with applicable the process is well underway, and it is very likely that in thirty years APP-plick-a-bull will be considered quaint or outdated. One way in which my poll respondents (i.e., you folks) are non-random is in terms of age. It would be interesting if one wanted to look at the process by investigating people in the 55+ age category as well as those in their teens to see how these words are changing.

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