Missing word, standard puzzle 16th March

[blackrockrose]

I was surprised to find that 'sackable' (as in 'sackable offence/offense') was not accepted as a word in the 'LEASEBACK' puzzle.

[mkenuk]

Seconded

MK

[Barbaram]

Me too!

[nineoaks]

I've never heard 'sackable,' but certainly like the sound of it and would be happy to welcome it into my vocabulary! 

nineoaks

[rogue_mother]

Here in the States we would refer to a fireable offense. I would be amenable to adding sackable to the Chihuahua lexicon. It has been listed in the Collins English Dictionary at least since 1991.

[blackrockrose]

Thank you, rogue-mother, I'll make a note of 'fireable'. I write for US websites and this is the kind of thing that is difficult to know unless you live there.

[oops]

Logically, the one who is fireable (or sackable) should be the offender, not the offense, don't you think? 

[Alan W]

Since we already allow fireable as a rare word, it seems logical that sackable should be treated in the same way. Actually both words seem to have some other uses, but I think the usages that generally go with offence (UK) / offense (US) would be the most frequent.

So, sackable will be added as a rare word.

Oops, I did spot the odd instance of the word sackable being used of workers. As early as 1976, the New Scientist quoted industrialist Sir Charles Villiers as speaking of "the old time view that labour was cheap and sackable." I agree that it seems logical that the offence ought to be called something like "sackworthy". Dictionary entries for the suffix -able usually give multiple senses, but I haven't seen one that quite fits these two examples.

[blackrockrose]

Thank you Alan.