evitable

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The Word of the Day for January 19 is:

evitable   \EV-uh-tuh-bul\   adjective
     : capable of being avoided 

Example sentence:
     "Books, journals, conventions, and electronic networks have made 
provincial isolation easily evitable." (James Sledd, _English Journal_, 
November 1994)

Did you know?
     T.S. Eliot once gave a lecture in which he spoke about "the disintegration 
of the intellect" in 19th century Europe, saying, "The 'disintegration' of 
which I speak may be evitable or inevitable, good or bad; to draw its 
optimistic or pessimistic conclusions is an occupation for prophets ... of whom 
I am not one" (quoted in _The New York Times_, May 23, 1994). "Evitable," 
though not common, has been in English since the beginning of the 16th century; 
it's often found paired with its opposite, "inevitable," as in Eliot's passage 
or in a book review by Peter Hebblethwaite (_Manchester Guardian Weekly_, May 
4, 1986): "In a work covering such a vast historical ground ... some mistakes 
were no doubt inevitable. But others were evitable." Both words were borrowed 
from similar Latin adjectives, which in turn are based on the verb "evitare," 
which means "to avoid."