Manageable means small or simple enough to be handled. A manageable size, keep it manageable, manageable chunks.
It is a judgement about capacity rather than about the thing — what is manageable for one person is not for another, which is why the word is so useful in planning. Manageable chunks is the fixed phrase for breaking work down. Note unmanageable; and that manage comes from the Italian for handling a horse, from mano, a hand.
1adjectivemanageableSmall or simple enough to be handled.
“The pain after the operation was manageable with ordinary painkillers.”
manageable is a quality of being handleable.
Manage plus -able. Manage comes from Italian maneggiare, to handle a horse, from Latin manus, a hand. Manual and manoeuvre come from the same hand.
en-ear
manage
roa-oit
maneggiare
Old French
manege
Middle English
*manage
English
manage
English, today
manageable
From manage + -able. manage comes from Middle English manage, from Old French manege, from roa-oit maneggiare. From en-ear manage, menage, from Middle English manage, menage, from Old French manege (“the handling or training of a horse, horsemanship, riding, maneuvers, proceedings”), probably from roa-oit maneggiare (“to handle, manage, touch, treat”), from Vulgar Latin manizāre (“handle”), from Latin manus (“hand”) + -izō. a doublet of manège. Compare typologically handle; руководи́ть (< рука́).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA