saleable

The price tag on this pullover indicates that it is saleable

sale +‎ -able.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈseɪləbl̩/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Hyphenation: sale‧a‧ble

saleable (comparative more saleable, superlative most saleable)

1. Suitable for sale; marketable; worth enough to try to sell.
   • 1598, [Edward Guilpin], “Satyra Secunda”, in Skialetheia. Or, A Shadowe of Truth in Certaine Epigrams and Satyrs, London: Printed by I[ames] R[oberts] for Nicholas Ling, and are to bee solde at the little west doore of Poules, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Skialetheia. Or, A Shadowe of Truth in Certaine Epigrams and Satyrs (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I.; [nos. 4, 10, 14]), [London]: [s.n.], [1870], →OCLC, page 34:

     Consider what a rough worme-eaten table / By well-mix'd colours is made ſaleable; / Or how toad-houſing ſculs, and old ſwart bones / Are grac'd with painted toombs and plated ſtones; […]

   • 1606, Edward Forsett, A Comparative Discovrse of the Bodies Natvral and Politiqve. Wherein out of the Principles of Nature, is Set Forth the True Forme of a Commonweale, with the Dutie of Subjects, and the Right of the Soueraigne: Together with Many Good Points of Politicall Learning, Mentioned in a Briefe after the Preface, London: Printed for Iohn Bill, →OCLC, page 98:

     Cato cenſureth fitly of them percunctatores garruli [talkative idle], and Plautus amplie deſcribeth their natures, terming them by an old but ſignificant name of famigeratores, as filled both in the eares and in the mouth, with a certaine ſaleable windy matter of rumours and reports.

   • 1892 June, Karl Menger [i.e., Carl Menger], “On the Origin of Money”, in Caroline A. Foley, transl., edited by F[rancis] Y[sidro] Edgeworth, The Economic Journal: The Journal of the British Economic Association, volume II, number 6, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, section VI (On the Genesis of Media of Exchange), page 248:

     With the extension of traffic in space and with the expansion over ever longer intervals of time of prevision for satisfying material needs, each individual would learn, from his own economic interests, to take good heed that he bartered his less saleable goods for those special commodities which displayed, beside the attraction of being highly saleable in the particular locality, a wide range of saleableness both in time and place.

   • 1984, C. W. Clark, “Strategies for Multispecies Management: Objectives and Constraints”, in R[obert] M. May, editor, Exploitation of Marine Communities: Report of the Dahlem Workshop on Exploitation of Marine Communities, Berlin 1984, April 1–6 (Dahlem Workshop Report; Life Sciences Research Report; 32), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →OCLC, page 306:

     Perhaps the central unsolved problem for multispecies fishery management is the problem of finding a saleable, operational catch-phrase to replace MSY [maximum sustainable yield], or if that proves impossible, an understandable series of basic management principles.

   • 2015, Mark Ribowsky, “Look What’s Going On Inside You”, in Whiskey Bottles and Brand-New Cars: The Fast Life and Sudden Death of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, page 195:

     Ronnie [Van Zant], meanwhile, was strutting hard. After getting home from Knebworth, he began wearing a T-shirt that definitely was not for sale. It read, who the fuck are the rolling stones anyway? That cocky attitude was as salable a quality as any band apparel.

   • 2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 9 September 2017:

     The attacking three have also been allowed to bloom. Liberated from deep defensive duties Eden Hazard has become more expressive, more obviously, flashily complete. Not to mention more saleable too, his role closer to the way Europe's monied giants in Spain and France allow their stars to function.

• salable (chiefly US)

• sellable
• vendible

• saleability, salability
• saleableness, salableness
• saleably, salably

saleable (plural saleables)

1. Something that can be sold.
   • 1754, J. R. [pseudonym; Patrick Delany], chapter XI, in Observations upon Lord Orrery’s Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift. Containing Several Singular Anecdotes Relating to the Character and Conduct of that Great Genius, and the Most Deservedly Celebrated Stella. In a Series of Letters to His Lordship. Two which are Added, Two Original Pieces of the Same Author (Excellent in Their Kind) never before Publish’d, London: Printed and sold by W. Reeve at Shakespear's Head near Serjeants-Inn Gate, Fleet-street, and by A. Linde in Catherine-street in the Strand, →OCLC, pages 132–133:

     If any of their ware were ſuch, as he could poſſibly make uſe of, or pretend to make uſe of, he always brought ſome: and paid for every half-penny-worth, at leaſt ſixpence: and for every penny-worth, a ſhilling. If their ſaleables were of another nature, he added ſomething to their ſtock: with ſtrict charges of induſtry, and honeſty.

   • 1850, J. T. Headley, “Rambles in England”, in The Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. J. T. Headley. With a Biographical Sketch and Portrait of the Author, 2nd edition, volume I, New York, N.Y.: John S. Taylor, 143 Nassau Street, page 237:

     The village itself looks like a fragment of antiquity, though the streets were somewhat enlivened, the day I passed through them, by multitudes of men, women, children, cows, horses, and sheep, to say nothing of vegetables and saleables of all kinds and quality.

   • 1974, Theodor W. Adorno, “Small Sorrows, Great Songs”, in E. F. N. Jephcott, transl., Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life, London: New Left Books, →ISBN; republished London, New York, N.Y.: Verso Books, 2005, →ISBN, page 215:

     The transformation of expressive content from an undirected impulse into material for manipulation makes it palpable, exhibitable, saleable. The lyrical subjectivism of [Heinrich] Heine, for example, does not stand in simple contradiction to his commercial traits; the saleable is itself subjectivity administrated by subjectivity.

   • 1974, Sylvia O'Neill Dorn, The Insider’s Guide to Antiques, Art, and Collectibles, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC, page 116:

     Be prepared to give a discount for special reasons. Watch your merchandise carefully since light fingers sometimes make salables into disappearables.

• leasable, sabellae, sealable