Dictionary

conversable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From converse + -able.

Meanings

1. (of people) Able and inclined to engage in conversation.
   • 1792, anonymous, “To Warren Hastings, Esq.,” cited in a letter written by William Cowper to Harriett Hesketh dated 5 May, 1792, in The Life, and Posthumous Writings, of William Cowper, Esqr., Chichester, 2nd ed., 1803, p. 40, I knew thee young, and of a mind While young, humane, conversable, and kind,
   • The elegant Part of mankind […] may be divided into the learned and conversible. […] The conversible World join to a sociable Disposition, and a Taste for Pleasure, an Inclination for the easier and more gentle Exercises of the Understanding, 1742, David Hume, “Of Essay-Writing”, in Essays Moral and Political:
   • It is proper for a Gentleman […] to be Civil, and Conversible in Discourse, to know Men and Manners. 1655, Margaret Cavendish, The Worlds Olio, London: J. Martin and J. Allestrye, Book 2, Part 2, p. 110:
   • I had […] days when I ached for a conversable girl. The island women were […] dour and sallow-faced, and about as seducible as a Free Church congregation. 1965, John Fowles, The Magus, Boston: Little, Brown, Part 1, Chapter 8, p. 53:
   • When I had eaten well and heartily, Brother Ambrose, a hearty conversible Frenchman (for all those who wait on strangers have the liberty to speak), led me to a little room […] 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Monks”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, London: Kegan Paul, page 91:
   • He had a bottle of whisky in one hand, to make himself conversible. 1957, T. H. White, chapter 29, in The Master, New York: Putnam, page 225:
2. (obsolete, of people) Able to be conversed with.
   • […] a full-grown horse, or dog, is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversible animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. 1789, Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, London: T. Payne and Son, Chapter 17, p. 309, footnote:
   • […] it is not the invisible Devil that I am enquiring after, but an appearing conversible Daemon or Evil Spirit […] assuming human Shape, or at least Voice, 1728, Daniel Defoe, chapter 3, in A System of Magick, London: Andrew Millar, page 89:
3. (obsolete, of things) Pertaining to, suited for or exhibiting conversation.
   • 1691, John Hartcliffe, A Treatise of Moral and Intellectual Virtues, London: C. Harper, p. 156, Of the Three Conversable VIRTUES […] The Virtues which adorn and recommend a Man in Conversation […]
   • The evening was quiet and conversible, as Mr. Woodhouse declined cards entirely for the sake of comfortable talk with his dear Isabella, 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 12, in Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 210:
   • 1619, John Donne, Sermon 71 in LXXX Sermons, London: Richard Royston, 1640, p. 720, […] it were not hard to assigne many examples of men that have stolne a great measure of learning, and yet lived open and conversable lives, and never beene observed […] to have spent many houres in study
   • 1780, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. 9, in The American Crisis, and a Letter to Sir Guy Carleton, London: Daniel Isaac Eaton, circa 1796, pp. 211-212, […] while you, remote from the scene of suffering, had nothing to lose, and as little to dread, the information reached you like a tale of antiquity, in which the distance of time defaces the conception, and changes the severest sorrows into conversable amusement.

Forms

Deriveds

unconversable · conversableness · conversably · inconversable

Synonyms

approachable · conversational · affable · sociable · agreeable · genial