Dictionary

nameable en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ Proto-Germanic *namô Proto-West Germanic *namō Old English nama Middle English name English name Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English nameable From name + -able.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Capable of being distinguished and named; able to be called by a specific name.
   • The vogue for the sleuth-flâneur […] in the first half of the twentieth century has encouraged recent attempts to map the rise of British detective fiction, and its subsequent love affair with the thriller, onto the shifts in national morale precipitated by international conflict. One train of thought, for instance, suggests that the genre provides nameable, explicable corpses to mourn, after the senseless obliterations of the First World War. 2007 June 20, Trev Broughton, “More work for Margery Allingham”, in The Times Literary Supplement:
   • 1635, Alexander Gill, The Sacred Philosophie of Holy Scripture, London: Joyce Norton and Richard Whitaker, Chapter 8, p. 30, [God’s] pure being, because it is neither understandable, nor nameable by us, we speake of goodnesse, of power, &c. as of the effluences or prime acts thereof […]
   • There's a strange kind of power in games like that; like XCOM, with its nameable soldiers, or The Sims' customizable families. 2014 June 6, Griffin McElroy, “Tomodachi Life review”, in Polygon:
   • Mr. Hyde […] gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation […] 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Search for Mr. Hyde”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, page 25:
   • Grits have been part of the story of the South as long as the South has been a nameable region — and they were around long before that, too. 2019 February 9, Susannah Felts, “Grits more than 'fuel in a box'”, in Knoxville News Sentinel:
2. (not-comparable, obsolete) Worthy of being named or having a name; significant; memorable (especially in negative expressions).
   • 1810, William Coleman, An Appeal to the People, New York: C.S. Van Winkle, p. 72, A mission hatched by Jefferson under the pretence of forming a commercial treaty, though we have neither trade of any nameable amount with Russia, nor any political concerns with her […]
   • […] the culture [of alfalfa] is not very expensive, though the profit is not nameable till the second or third year, when the cuttings are considerable […] c. 1785, Josiah Ringsted, The Cattle-Keeper’s Assistant, 7th edition, London: J. Dixwell, page 52:

Forms

Antonyms

nameless (antonym(s) of) · irrelevant (antonym(s) of “memorable”) · unrecognisable · unidentifiable · forgettable (antonym(s) of “memorable”) · unnameable

Deriveds

nameableness · nameably

Synonyms

identifiable · distinguishable · notable · recognisable

Translations (2)

pl nazywalny (Translations) · pt nomeável (Translations)