diff --git a/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js b/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
index 715922515ec..359aa28d062 100644
--- a/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
+++ b/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
@@ -374,9 +374,8 @@ instance.web.ListView = instance.web.View.extend( /** @lends instance.web.ListVi
         var $column = $(e.currentTarget);
         var col_name = $column.data('id');
         var field = this.fields_view.fields[col_name];
-        // test if the field is a function field with store=false, since it's impossible
-        // for the server to sort those fields we desactivate the feature
-        if (field && field.store === false) {
+        // test whether the field is sortable
+        if (field && !field.sortable) {
             return false;
         }
         this.dataset.sort(col_name);
diff --git a/openerp/fields.py b/openerp/fields.py
index 6626b67f0cd..6a2f0f75fd1 100644
--- a/openerp/fields.py
+++ b/openerp/fields.py
@@ -408,6 +408,7 @@ class Field(object):
         self.compute = self._compute_related
         self.inverse = self._inverse_related
         if field._description_searchable(env):
+            # allow searching on self only if the related field is searchable
             self.search = self._search_related
 
         # copy attributes from field to self (string, help, etc.)
@@ -548,6 +549,15 @@ class Field(object):
                    bool(getattr(column, '_fnct_search', False))
         return bool(self.search)
 
+    def _description_sortable(self, env):
+        if self.store:
+            column = env[self.model_name]._columns.get(self.name)
+            return bool(getattr(column, 'store', True))
+        if self.inherited:
+            # self is sortable if the inherited field is itself sortable
+            return self.related_field._description_sortable(env)
+        return False
+
     _description_manual = property(attrgetter('manual'))
     _description_depends = property(attrgetter('depends'))
     _description_related = property(attrgetter('related'))