Able to be eaten, drunk, or used up; designed to be consumed rather than kept.
From Latin consumabilis, derived from consumere (to consume) plus -able. Originally described food and drink, then expanded to all disposable goods.
The rise of 'consumables' as a business category in the 1990s—printer cartridges, phone cases, replacement parts—created a profitable model where you buy the tool once but the consumables forever.
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