palpable [LME] This word is from late Latin palpabilis, from Latin palpare ‘feel, touch gently’, also the source of the medical term palpate [M19th] ‘examine by touch’. When Osric says in Hamlet ‘A hit, a very palpable hit’ (Act 5, scene 2) he is using ‘very palpable’ in a literal sense, ‘truly feelable’, but the sense of a feeling that is so strong that it is almost touchable was already found in late Latin and is also in Late Middle English. Latin palpare also developed the variant palpitare literally ‘to touch gently repeatedly’, but used for ‘to tremble, throb’, source of our words palpitate [E17th] and palpitation [LME].