amiable

From Middle English amyable, from Old French amiable, from Late Latin amīcābilis (“friendly”), from Latin amīcus (“friend”), from amō (“love”, verb). The meaning has been influenced by French amiable and Latin amābilis (“loveable”) (whence English aimable and amable). Doublet of amicable. Compare with amorous, amability.

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ.mi.ə.bəl/, /ˈæ.mi.ə.bəl/

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amiable (comparative more amiable, superlative most amiable)

1. Friendly; kind; sweet; gracious

   an amiable temper

   amiable ideas

   • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, V.i:

     The sums I have lent him! indeed—I have been exceedingly to blame—it was an amiable weakness!

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     A short time afterward at the opera Gerald dragged him into a parterre to say something amiable to one of the amiable débutante Craig girls—and Selwyn found himself again facing Alixe.

2. Of a pleasant and likeable nature; kind-hearted; easy to like

   an amiable person

   • c. 1521, John Skelton, Speke Parott:

     My deyſy delectabyll
     My prymerose commendabyll
     My vyolet amyabyll
     My ioye in explicabill
     Nowe torne agayne to me

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     A short time afterward at the opera Gerald dragged him into a parterre to say something amiable to one of the amiable débutante Craig girls—and Selwyn found himself again facing Alixe.

• See amicable.

• likable

• “amiable”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “amiable”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “amiable”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• aimable

From Old French amiable, from Late Latin amīcābilis.

• IPA^(key): /a.mjabl/

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amiable (plural amiables)

1. amiable

• à l’amiable

• “amiable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Late Latin amīcābilis (“friendly”), from Latin amīcus (“friend”), from amō (“I love”).

amiable m (oblique and nominative feminine singular amiable)

1. likable; amiable

• Middle French: amyable
  • French: amiable
• Middle English: amyable, amiable
  • English: amiable