Habitable means fit for people to live in. A habitable room, barely habitable, the habitable zone.
In housing law it is a standard with teeth: a property must be fit for habitation, and what that means is defined by statute. In astronomy the habitable zone is the band around a star where liquid water could exist on a surface. Note that the Latin means to dwell, from habitare.
1adjectivehabitableFit for people to live in.
“After the flood, the house wasn't habitable for months.”
habitable is a quality of fitness to live in.
Latin habitabilis comes from habitare, to dwell, from habere, to have. Habit and inhabit come from the same dwelling.
Latin
habitābilis — habitable
Middle French
habitable
Middle English
abitable
English, today
habitable
Built from
From Middle English abitable, habytable, from Middle French habitable, from Latin habitābilis (“habitable”), from habitō (“dwell, live”). by surface analysis, habit + able.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA