Capable of being colonised; able to be settled, occupied, or populated by colonists or microorganisms.
From 'colonise' (verb) + '-able' (adjective-forming suffix meaning 'capable of'). British spelling; American English uses 'colonizable.' The term gained prominence in the 19th-20th centuries as Europeans debated which territories were 'colonisable.'
This innocent-sounding word hides a dark history: European powers literally debated whether certain territories and peoples were 'colonisable,' which was code for whether they could dominate and exploit them—it's one of the language tools imperialism used to justify expansion.
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