'automatable' originates from English, specifically formed from the verb 'automate' plus the suffix '-able', where 'automate' ultimately derives from Greek 'automatos' and 'auto-' meant 'self' (with 'automatos' meaning 'self-moving'), and the suffix '-able' meant 'capable of'.

'automatable' was created in modern English by adding the productive adjective-forming suffix '-able' to the verb 'automate'. The verb 'automate' was borrowed into English (via French 'automate' and 19th-century technical usage) from Greek 'automatos', and the adjective 'automatable' arose with the growth of industrial and computing contexts.

Initially the Greek root 'automatos' meant 'self-moving' or 'self-acting', but over time the English formation 'automatable' came to mean 'capable of being operated or performed automatically (by machines or algorithms)'.