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Saw the title of the movie where minions come out - "Despicable Me" - I was curious, as despicable has the suffix -able, what would be its verb form? Then, I thought, is it de-spice? Which made me read it de-spice-able.
However, after looking up the dictionary, I found that its verb form is despise and it is pronounced de-spik-able. Isn't it okay to use "despisable?" How did this happen? Are there more adjectives like this?
I have never heard ‘despisable’ used in educated British English. Although I do not accept web or word-processor spelling dictionaries as authorities, they do reflect a view of contemporary usage, and the web browser I am using as I write this (Safari, Mac, UK) underlines it as a misspelling. However, consulting two British printed dictionaries I find both words listed.
Chambers (1993 edition)
despicable adj deserving to be despised…
despise to look down upon with contempt, scorn, hate — adj despisable
Oxford English Dictionary (1928)
despicable…1. to be looked down upon or despised, vile, base, contemptible
despisable…1. to be despised or treated with contempt; contemptible, despicable. Now rare.
The first quoted use of despisable is 1340, whereas that of despicable is 1553.
Conclusions
Recommendation
Use ‘despicable’. It is perfectly correct and will be much more familiar to your readers as it is much more widely used than ‘despisable’.
According to Dictionary.com, both "despicable" and "despisable" are acceptable, however "despicable" tends to mean deserving to be despised.
Cturned into FrenchSand that turned, eventually, into English /z/, all in certain places and not others, like sounds do. But the original Latin word was borrowed with the originalCto stick -able onto. There are millions of stories like this, btw; several for each word in the language.