Actionable

[Yves Jeaurond]

Another source of popularity for 'actionable' could be
that the word is a cornerstone of David Allen's _Getting Things Done_ (2001),
  a best-selling business book about personal productivity. 
The publisher claims "over 600,000 copies in print". 
  Those who use Allen's method are instructed to first ask:
 "Is the item actionable?" to start routing each item of stuff 
in their IN basket. 
   
  <disclaimer> Yes, I'm a fan of the method, <grin> but not the word.
  Allen could have rephrased: "Can you act on the item?" to style it
in an active voice. He made that common passive voice transfer of
a subject's act to an object's description.
   
  HTH,
   
  YJ
   
  ======
Nancy Allison wrote:
> When did this word go from meaning "subject to or affording ground for an
> action or suit at law" to "something that can be acted on"?
> 
> My 1981 Webster's Collegiate Dictionary provides only the first definition.
[...]