Affordable means cheap enough for ordinary people to buy. Affordable housing, an affordable price, barely affordable.
It is relative to income rather than absolute, which is why affordable housing has a technical definition in planning — usually a share of local earnings or of market rent — and why the phrase is argued about so much. In advertising it means cheap without saying cheap. Note afford, and that -able means capable of.
1adjectiveaffordableCheap enough for ordinary people to buy.
“It's getting harder for young people to find affordable housing in the city.”
affordable is a quality of price.
Proto-Germanic
*furþōną
Old English
forþian
Middle English
afforthen
English
afford
English, today
affordable
Built from
From afford + -able. afford comes from Middle English afforthen, aforthen, avorthien, from earlier iforthen, iforthien, ȝeforthien, from Old English forþian, ġeforþian (“to further, accomplish, afford”), from Proto-Germanic furþōną, from Proto-Germanic furþą (“forth, forward”), equivalent to a + forth. Cognate with Old Norse forða (“to forward oneself, save oneself, escape danger”), Icelandic forða (“to save, rescue”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA