George WillTom Verducci
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Before expectations about the origins of fungible mushroom into mycological fantasy: no, fungible has no relation to the noun fungus and its plural fungi. The fungi in fungible is there because of the Latin verb fungi, meaning “to perform,” ancestor of both fungible and function. Fungible is considerably less familiar than its cousin to most English users, but it pops up like toadstools (sorry) in legal, technological, and economic contexts. Something described as fungible can be exchanged for something else of the same kind. For example, when we say “oil is a fungible commodity,” we mean that when a purchaser is expecting a delivery of oil, any oil of the stipulated quantity and quality will usually do. Another example of something fungible is cash. It doesn't matter what twenty dollar bill you get—it’s still worth the same amount as any other twenty dollar bill. In contrast, something like a work of art (or an NFT, aka a “non-fungible token”) isn’t fungible; a purchaser would expect a specific, identifiable item to be delivered. In broader use, fungible can mean “interchangeable,” or sometimes “readily changeable to adapt to new situations.”
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Examples of fungible in a Sentence
Edan Yago, Forbes, 16 Oct. 2024
The incentives to throw harder and harder are so high, and teams are rotating through pitchers quickly even in the best of circumstances—treating them more and more as fungible commodities, at least to a point.
—Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2024
That is, all revenues are fungible and may be used to address the most critical transportation needs.
—Rick Fitzgerald, Orlando Sentinel, 28 July 2024
Recommended Biden’s immigration announcement explained in 3 questions Gun groups have a broader concern that Second Amendment rights are more fungible than others.
—Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 June 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Fungible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fungible. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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