Serviceable means still good enough to be used. A serviceable coat, serviceable but plain, perfectly serviceable.
It is faint praise and honest about it: serviceable says the thing works and nothing more, which is exactly why it is useful for old cars, old boots and adequate prose. In the military it means fit for use rather than in need of repair. Note service, from the Latin for a slave.
1adjectiveserviceableStill good enough to be used.
“The old car isn't pretty, but it's still perfectly serviceable.”
synonyms: usable, adequate
serviceable is a quality of usefulness.
Old French servisable comes from servise, from Latin servitium, servitude, from servus, a slave. Serve and servant come from the same word.
Old French
servisable
Middle English
servisable
English, today
serviceable
From Middle English servisable, from Old French servisable, from servise. by surface analysis, service + -able.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA