This word sounds like a term associated with a debt instrument, as in, “The borrower shall be liable…” and similar phrases. In the South, however, we use it conversationally to mean inclined or prone to do something, generally—but not always—something adverse.
It is pronounced “LYE-bel” (rhymes with “Bible”), and the following sentences illustrate its usage:
You’d better leave that dog alone. He used to be sweet and love everybody, but since he’s started to lose his eyesight, he’s liable to jump up and bite you!
Or,
Cousin Cora was the most elegant and refined lady you ever saw, but she’s liable to cuss the paint off a wall since she’s gotten Alzheimer’s. Nobody could believe she even knew some of those words she uses.
Or,
Lord, have mercy! Grandpa’s running the chainsaw! Go get it from him quickly; he’s liable to cut off an arm or leg with that thing!
Or,
Your daddy won’t listen to his doctor and insists on working in the yard even in the heat of the day. I’m afraid if he doesn’t come in out of that sun, he’s liable to have a heat stroke or worse, but he won’t listen to me.
Or,
If you don’t significantly tone down what you’re saying and writing about that man, he’s liable to take you to court for slander and libel. (Although an imaginative Southerner with a reasonable vocabulary would probably not use the rhyming “liable” and “libel” in the same sentence. And please do not try to tell your compiler those two words do not rhyme—they do, and always will, in his world!)
Or, in a story that goes a baby step or two out on a limb from the tree trunk of propriety:
Little Johnny came into class one day crying hysterically. His teacher, unused to seeing the tough, obstreperous, ill-bred child showing any emotion whatsoever, flew to comfort him.
“Johnny, what’s wrong?” she implored.
Amid his gushing and sniffling, and with much stuttering and hesitancy, the little boy explained:
“I-I-I-I was w-w-waitin’ fer the b-b-bus and m’dog was p-p-playin’ around. I-I-I told ‘im if he d-d-didn’t s-s-settle d-d-down, he was liable to g-g-get hit by a c-car, and s-s-sure enough, a b-b-biggol car come f’f’flyin’ ovuh th’hill just then an’ hit ‘im r-r-right in the a$$ an’ hurt ‘im real bad.”
Shocked, the teacher scolded, “JOHNNY! You mean ‘rectum!’”
Little Johnny wiped his eyes, stopped his waterworks, and looked up at her as if she did not have the sense God promised a water bug.
“Wrecked him??” he asked with incredulity. “No, ma’am, it liked t’kilt him!”
So there the reader has a story that neatly includes last week’s topic—“liked to have”—as well as this week’s focus, “liable.”
It is also a story that is liable to get your compiler in at least some lukewarm water with more gentle readers. And if the non-Southern reader keeps looking at these columns each week, he or she is liable to pick up some good Southern sayings and pronunciations.
Hopefully, the Southern reader just nods along in agreement!
