Salvageable means damaged, but still worth saving. Nothing salvageable, a salvageable engine, barely salvageable.
The test is economic rather than physical: almost anything can be repaired, and a thing is salvageable when the repair costs less than the replacement. Insurers write off cars on exactly that line. Note salvage, from the Latin for saving.
1adjectivesalvageableDamaged, but still worth saving.
“The flood ruined the carpets, but most of the furniture was salvageable.”
salvageable is a quality of worth.
Proto-Indo-European
*solh₂-
Latin
salvo — to make safe, secure, save
Old French
salver
English
salvage
English, today
salvageable
From salvage + -able. salvage comes from Old French salver (see also save, from a variant form), from Latin salvo (“to make safe, secure, save”), from Latin salvus (“safe”) with the English suffix -age.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA