Practical and Practicable
Preserved but no longer current.
These two words are often confused in common usage. Practical means adapted to*actual conditions, pertaining to action not theory or speculation. A prac- tical man is one better adapted to doing manual jobs than to speculating about them. A prac- tical joke (rarely a joke to its victim, be* it observed) is a piece of humour that depends on some action on the part of the perpetrator, usually to the discomfiture of the subject.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Practical and Practicable” mean?
These two words are often confused in common usage. Practical means adapted to*actual conditions, pertaining to action not theory or speculation. A prac- tical man is one better adapted to doing manual jobs than to speculating about them. A prac- tical joke (rarely a joke to its victim, be* it observed) is a piece of humour that depends on some action on the part of the perpetrator, usually to the discomfiture of the subject.
Is “Practical and Practicable” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.