passableadj.adv.n.

Brit.

/ˈpɑːsəbl/,

/ˈpasəbl/, U.S.

/ˈpæsəb(ə)l/

Forms:

α. late Middle English–1500s passyble, 1500s–1600s (1700s Scottish) (1800s– nonstandard) passible.

β. late Middle English passabill, late Middle English– passable, 1600s passeable.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: French passable ; pass v., -able suffix.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French passable (late 13th cent. in Old French in senses A. 3 and A. 5, c1340 in sense A. 1, 1396 in sense A. 2; French passable , now only in sense A. 2) < passer pass v. + -able -able suffix; compare post-classical Latin passabilis (1438 in a French source), Italian passabile (a1655). In sense A. 6 < pass v. + -able suffix.With sense A. 3 compare post-classical Latin passibilis , in the same sense (1533 in the passage translated in quot. 1555 at sense A. 3).

A. adj.

1. Able to be passed or crossed; suitable for the passage of people, vehicles, or animals.

ΘΚΠ

society > travel > [adjective] > travelled on, over, or through > able to be

trespassablec1400

permeable?a1439

passable1483

travellable1521

passageable1574

perviable1610

transpassable1614

perviousa1631

commerceable1654

traversable1658

practicable1710

viable1856

crossable1865

negotiable1880

1483 tr. Pylgremage of Sowle (Caxton) i. iii. f. iiij Ryght as the fletyng ayer yeueth place to the flyght of byrdes.., ryght so was al this erthe passyble to spirites.

1527 Bp. W. Knight in N. Pocock Rec. Reformation (1870) I. xxviii. 57 The rivers not being always passable.

1576 Act 18 Eliz. c. 10 §7 For the better keeping of the Highways passable for her Majesty's People.

1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. iii. x. §15. 128 To leaue at their backs a wood scarce passeable.

1685 London Gaz. No. 2080/3 The Streets were hardly passable.

1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 123 The Ford was not passable.

1841 W. Spalding Italy & Ital. Islands I. 38 The river is passable for boats..to the Mediterranean, a distance of nearly sixty miles.

1902 G. S. Whitmore Last Maori War viii. 109 The European force remained at the road with the pack transport, for which they were to continue making the track passable.

1959 G. L. Harding Antiq. of Jordan vii. 138 The road is fairly smooth and passable in all weathers now.

2002 Esquire July 115/2 It's a perfectly passable dirt road.

2. Of adequate or acceptable quality; sufficient; satisfactory. In later use: just good enough to be acceptable.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > mediocrity > [adjective]

feeblec1275

demeanc1380

unnoblec1384

coarse1424

colourlessc1425

passable1489

meana1500

indifferent1532

plain1539

so-so1542

mediocre1586

ordinary1590

fameless1611

middling1652

middle-rate1658

ornery1692

so-soish1819

nohow1828

betwixt and between1832

indifferential1836

null1847

undazzling1855

deviceless1884

uncompetitive1885

tug1890

run of the mill1919

serviceable1920

dim1958

spammy1959

comme ci, comme ça1968

vanilla1972

meh2007

1489 W. Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes i. xii. 33 Take gode hede that noon be reteyned but he be passable so that noo fawte be in his persone.

1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 122 At that time I thought it excelling, but nowe I feare it will bee found scant passable.

1637 W. Laud Speech in Starr-chamber 6 Our maine Crime is..that we are Bishops; were we not so, some of us might be as passable as other men.

1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. ii. 7 There were many women deemed passable, who were inferior to herself.

1838 R. Southey Doctor V. 218 A passable knowledge of living languages.

1893 Times 12 June 4/2 Potatoes appear in eight departments very good, 13 good, 17 satisfactory, 18 passable, six mediocre, and three bad.

1933 J. Hilton Lost Horizon ii. 62 Mallinson had called him ugly, but Conway..thought him a fairly passable specimen.

1991 Time 1 July 34/1 A hefty fellow who spoke passable English in a near whisper.

†3. Able to pass or have passage. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > movement over, across, through, or past > [adjective] > through > able to pass through

passable1555

diaporous1682

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde iii. vi. f. 121^v Forasmuche as they [sc. sunbeams] are not passyble [L. passibiles] in them selues as dothe manyfestly appeare by the snowe lyinge contynually vnmolten vpon certeyne hygh montaynes.

1664 H. More Antidote Idolatry x. 131 So that a Soul otherwise passable of her self would be necessarily drown'd in this one foul Deluge of Guilt.

1745 Philos. Trans. 1744–5 (Royal Soc.) 43 502 All passable Stones which have lately fallen from the Kidneys into the Bladder,..might readily and easily be brought out thence.

1763 Philos. Trans. 1762 (Royal Soc.) 52 464 The Sun's rays become passable through such a length of medium.

†4. Legal, authorized; spec. (of money) current, or valid as currency; (of a book) permitted or suitable to be circulated. Also figurative. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > money > circulation of money > [adjective] > capable of circulation

passable1590

circulable1793

society > communication > book > library or collection of books > library, place, or institution > [adjective] > of book: fit for circulation

passable1590

1590 R. Greene Neuer too Late i. 6 Sterling coine passable from man to man in way of exchange.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) v. ii. 15 The vertue of your name, Is not heere passable .

1673 H. Hickman Hist. Quinq-articularis 488 He would have prevailed with some of them to authorize his Book, that it might have been more passable.

1702 Eng. Theophrastus 188 It is with Men, as it is with false Money; One piece is more or less passable than another, as it happens to have more or less Sense or Starling in the Mixture.

1771 Pennsylvania Gaz. 12 Sept. 4/2 A one ninth of a dollar bill, Maryland money, so ragged that it is hardly passable.

1888 B. W. Richardson Son of Star III. xi. 186 The coin may cease to be of value as a passable thing, as money, but as a relic it must always live.

†5. Passing, transient, ephemeral. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > swift movement of time > [adjective]

slidinga900

scrithingOE

henwardOE

swifta1225

short livya1325

passing1340

flittingc1374

shadowy1374

temporalc1384

speedfula1400

transitory?c1400

brittlea1425

unabidingc1430

frail?c1450

indurablec1450

scrithel?c1475

caduke1483

transitorious1492

passanta1500

perishinga1500

caducea1513

fugitive?1518

caducal?1548

quick1548

delible1549

flittering1549

undurable?1555

shadowish1561

fleeting1563

vading1566

flightful1571

wanzing1571

transitive1575

slipping1581

diary1583

unlasting1585

never-lasting1588

flit1590

post-like1594

running1598

short-lived1598

short-winded1598

transient1599

unpermanent1607

flashy1609

of a day1612

passable1613

dureless1614

urgenta1616

waxena1616

decayable1617

horary1620

evanid1626

fugitable1628

short-dated1632

fugacious1635

ephemerala1639

impermanent1653

fungous1655

volatile1655

ephemerousa1660

unimmortal1667

timesome1674

while-being1674

of passage1680

journal1685

ephemeron1714

admovent1727

evanescent1728

meteorous1750

deciduous1763

preterient1786

ephemeridal1795

meteorica1802

meteor1803

ephemerean1804

ephemerid1804

evanescing1805

fleeted1810

fleet1812

unenduring1814

unremaining1817

unimmortalized1839

impersistent1849

flighty1850

uneternal1862

caducous1863

diurnal1866

horarious1866

brisk1879

evasive1881

picaresque1959

1613 Golden Meane 21 Imprint in the minde an abandoning of itselfe, by reputing earthly delights and acquisitions to be in their owne nature, as in their owne nature they are, passable and vncertaine.

1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xx. 65 Things acted..are..too more retaineable, then the passable tones of the tongue.

†6. Able or likely to be passed by a deliberative assembly. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > approval or sanction > quality of being approvable or acceptable > [adjective] > for ratification

firmable1584

passable1749

1749 in Jrnl. Cork Hist. & Archaeol. Soc. (1903) 9 51 A proclamation, declaring certain money coined in Ireland, was sent down by the Lord Deputy and Council to be passable.

1831 R. Whately in E. J. Whately Life & Corr. R. Whately (1866) I. 66 It is a task of double difficulty to frame what shall be at once an improvement and passable in Convocation [sc. of Oxford University].

B. adv.

= passably adv.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > mediocrity > [adverb]

so-so1530

indifferently?c1550

meanly1550

colourlessly1572

indifferent1583

passable1591

passablya1610

nohow1779

so-soishly1842

so-and-so1844

monochromatically1890

serviceably1896

comme ci, comme ça1945

1591 H. Savile tr. Tacitus Ende of Nero: Fower Bks. Hist. i. 43 Things which the..cares at hande made passable good.

1675 A. Marvell Wks. (1875) I. 431 I have a passable good estate.

1770 R. Cumberland Brothers i. x. 12 Sir Benjamin's a passable good companion, for a land-man.

1854 J. Esten Cooke Youth of Jefferson xxix. 240 No longer woful, but in passable good spirits.

1962 J. Arden Serjeant Musgrave's Dance i. iii. 24 Could you pick him some passable strongset men, could you?

2001 Southwest Farm Press (Nexis) 20 Dec. 28 My grandfather was..a passable good square dance fiddler.

C. n.

A person who or thing which is passable (sense A. 2).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > mediocrity > [noun]

mediocrity1588

indifferency1608

indifference1690

indifferentness1727

betweenity1760

commonness1779

passableness1779

flavourlessness1865

middlingness1866

normalcy1893

passable1908

1908 Westm. Gaz. 26 June 2/1 Among such offspring there would be a small class of ‘desirables’, a large class of ‘passables’, and a small class of ‘undesirables’.

1967 R. Singha & R. Massey Indian Dances xviii. 158 Students quickly learn that there are only small, but nevertheless crucial differences between the passable and the perfect.

1998 Bookseller 7 Aug. 70/1 A bottle of the fairly passable for the most amusing suggestion.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	passable
释义	passableadj.adv.n. Brit. /ˈpɑːsəbl/, /ˈpasəbl/, U.S. /ˈpæsəb(ə)l/ Forms: α. late Middle English–1500s passyble, 1500s–1600s (1700s Scottish) (1800s– nonstandard) passible. β. late Middle English passabill, late Middle English– passable, 1600s passeable. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: French passable ; pass v., -able suffix. Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French passable (late 13th cent. in Old French in senses A. 3 and A. 5, c1340 in sense A. 1, 1396 in sense A. 2; French passable , now only in sense A. 2) < passer pass v. + -able -able suffix; compare post-classical Latin passabilis (1438 in a French source), Italian passabile (a1655). In sense A. 6 < pass v. + -able suffix.With sense A. 3 compare post-classical Latin passibilis , in the same sense (1533 in the passage translated in quot. 1555 at sense A. 3). A. adj. 1. Able to be passed or crossed; suitable for the passage of people, vehicles, or animals. ΘΚΠ society > travel > [adjective] > travelled on, over, or through > able to be trespassablec1400 permeable?a1439 passable1483 travellable1521 passageable1574 perviable1610 transpassable1614 perviousa1631 commerceable1654 traversable1658 practicable1710 viable1856 crossable1865 negotiable1880 1483 tr. Pylgremage of Sowle (Caxton) i. iii. f. iiij Ryght as the fletyng ayer yeueth place to the flyght of byrdes.., ryght so was al this erthe passyble to spirites. 1527 Bp. W. Knight in N. Pocock Rec. Reformation (1870) I. xxviii. 57 The rivers not being always passable. 1576 Act 18 Eliz. c. 10 §7 For the better keeping of the Highways passable for her Majesty's People. 1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. iii. x. §15. 128 To leaue at their backs a wood scarce passeable. 1685 London Gaz. No. 2080/3 The Streets were hardly passable. 1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 123 The Ford was not passable. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & Ital. Islands I. 38 The river is passable for boats..to the Mediterranean, a distance of nearly sixty miles. 1902 G. S. Whitmore Last Maori War viii. 109 The European force remained at the road with the pack transport, for which they were to continue making the track passable. 1959 G. L. Harding Antiq. of Jordan vii. 138 The road is fairly smooth and passable in all weathers now. 2002 Esquire July 115/2 It's a perfectly passable dirt road. 2. Of adequate or acceptable quality; sufficient; satisfactory. In later use: just good enough to be acceptable. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > mediocrity > [adjective] feeblec1275 demeanc1380 unnoblec1384 coarse1424 colourlessc1425 passable1489 meana1500 indifferent1532 plain1539 so-so1542 mediocre1586 ordinary1590 fameless1611 middling1652 middle-rate1658 ornery1692 so-soish1819 nohow1828 betwixt and between1832 indifferential1836 null1847 undazzling1855 deviceless1884 uncompetitive1885 tug1890 run of the mill1919 serviceable1920 dim1958 spammy1959 comme ci, comme ça1968 vanilla1972 meh2007 1489 W. Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes i. xii. 33 Take gode hede that noon be reteyned but he be passable so that noo fawte be in his persone. 1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 122 At that time I thought it excelling, but nowe I feare it will bee found scant passable. 1637 W. Laud Speech in Starr-chamber 6 Our maine Crime is..that we are Bishops; were we not so, some of us might be as passable as other men. 1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. ii. 7 There were many women deemed passable, who were inferior to herself. 1838 R. Southey Doctor V. 218 A passable knowledge of living languages. 1893 Times 12 June 4/2 Potatoes appear in eight departments very good, 13 good, 17 satisfactory, 18 passable, six mediocre, and three bad. 1933 J. Hilton Lost Horizon ii. 62 Mallinson had called him ugly, but Conway..thought him a fairly passable specimen. 1991 Time 1 July 34/1 A hefty fellow who spoke passable English in a near whisper. †3. Able to pass or have passage. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > movement over, across, through, or past > [adjective] > through > able to pass through passable1555 diaporous1682 1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde iii. vi. f. 121^v Forasmuche as they [sc. sunbeams] are not passyble [L. passibiles] in them selues as dothe manyfestly appeare by the snowe lyinge contynually vnmolten vpon certeyne hygh montaynes. 1664 H. More Antidote Idolatry x. 131 So that a Soul otherwise passable of her self would be necessarily drown'd in this one foul Deluge of Guilt. 1745 Philos. Trans. 1744–5 (Royal Soc.) 43 502 All passable Stones which have lately fallen from the Kidneys into the Bladder,..might readily and easily be brought out thence. 1763 Philos. Trans. 1762 (Royal Soc.) 52 464 The Sun's rays become passable through such a length of medium. †4. Legal, authorized; spec. (of money) current, or valid as currency; (of a book) permitted or suitable to be circulated. Also figurative. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > money > circulation of money > [adjective] > capable of circulation passable1590 circulable1793 society > communication > book > library or collection of books > library, place, or institution > [adjective] > of book: fit for circulation passable1590 1590 R. Greene Neuer too Late i. 6 Sterling coine passable from man to man in way of exchange. a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) v. ii. 15 The vertue of your name, Is not heere passable . View more context for this quotation 1673 H. Hickman Hist. Quinq-articularis 488 He would have prevailed with some of them to authorize his Book, that it might have been more passable. 1702 Eng. Theophrastus 188 It is with Men, as it is with false Money; One piece is more or less passable than another, as it happens to have more or less Sense or Starling in the Mixture. 1771 Pennsylvania Gaz. 12 Sept. 4/2 A one ninth of a dollar bill, Maryland money, so ragged that it is hardly passable. 1888 B. W. Richardson Son of Star III. xi. 186 The coin may cease to be of value as a passable thing, as money, but as a relic it must always live. †5. Passing, transient, ephemeral. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > swift movement of time > [adjective] slidinga900 scrithingOE henwardOE swifta1225 short livya1325 passing1340 flittingc1374 shadowy1374 temporalc1384 speedfula1400 transitory?c1400 brittlea1425 unabidingc1430 frail?c1450 indurablec1450 scrithel?c1475 caduke1483 transitorious1492 passanta1500 perishinga1500 caducea1513 fugitive?1518 caducal?1548 quick1548 delible1549 flittering1549 undurable?1555 shadowish1561 fleeting1563 vading1566 flightful1571 wanzing1571 transitive1575 slipping1581 diary1583 unlasting1585 never-lasting1588 flit1590 post-like1594 running1598 short-lived1598 short-winded1598 transient1599 unpermanent1607 flashy1609 of a day1612 passable1613 dureless1614 urgenta1616 waxena1616 decayable1617 horary1620 evanid1626 fugitable1628 short-dated1632 fugacious1635 ephemerala1639 impermanent1653 fungous1655 volatile1655 ephemerousa1660 unimmortal1667 timesome1674 while-being1674 of passage1680 journal1685 ephemeron1714 admovent1727 evanescent1728 meteorous1750 deciduous1763 preterient1786 ephemeridal1795 meteorica1802 meteor1803 ephemerean1804 ephemerid1804 evanescing1805 fleeted1810 fleet1812 unenduring1814 unremaining1817 unimmortalized1839 impersistent1849 flighty1850 uneternal1862 caducous1863 diurnal1866 horarious1866 brisk1879 evasive1881 picaresque1959 1613 Golden Meane 21 Imprint in the minde an abandoning of itselfe, by reputing earthly delights and acquisitions to be in their owne nature, as in their owne nature they are, passable and vncertaine. 1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xx. 65 Things acted..are..too more retaineable, then the passable tones of the tongue. †6. Able or likely to be passed by a deliberative assembly. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > approval or sanction > quality of being approvable or acceptable > [adjective] > for ratification firmable1584 passable1749 1749 in Jrnl. Cork Hist. & Archaeol. Soc. (1903) 9 51 A proclamation, declaring certain money coined in Ireland, was sent down by the Lord Deputy and Council to be passable. 1831 R. Whately in E. J. Whately Life & Corr. R. Whately (1866) I. 66 It is a task of double difficulty to frame what shall be at once an improvement and passable in Convocation [sc. of Oxford University]. B. adv. = passably adv. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > mediocrity > [adverb] so-so1530 indifferently?c1550 meanly1550 colourlessly1572 indifferent1583 passable1591 passablya1610 nohow1779 so-soishly1842 so-and-so1844 monochromatically1890 serviceably1896 comme ci, comme ça1945 1591 H. Savile tr. Tacitus Ende of Nero: Fower Bks. Hist. i. 43 Things which the..cares at hande made passable good. 1675 A. Marvell Wks. (1875) I. 431 I have a passable good estate. 1770 R. Cumberland Brothers i. x. 12 Sir Benjamin's a passable good companion, for a land-man. 1854 J. Esten Cooke Youth of Jefferson xxix. 240 No longer woful, but in passable good spirits. 1962 J. Arden Serjeant Musgrave's Dance i. iii. 24 Could you pick him some passable strongset men, could you? 2001 Southwest Farm Press (Nexis) 20 Dec. 28 My grandfather was..a passable good square dance fiddler. C. n. A person who or thing which is passable (sense A. 2). ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > mediocrity > [noun] mediocrity1588 indifferency1608 indifference1690 indifferentness1727 betweenity1760 commonness1779 passableness1779 flavourlessness1865 middlingness1866 normalcy1893 passable1908 1908 Westm. Gaz. 26 June 2/1 Among such offspring there would be a small class of ‘desirables’, a large class of ‘passables’, and a small class of ‘undesirables’. 1967 R. Singha & R. Massey Indian Dances xviii. 158 Students quickly learn that there are only small, but nevertheless crucial differences between the passable and the perfect. 1998 Bookseller 7 Aug. 70/1 A bottle of the fairly passable for the most amusing suggestion. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < adj.adv.n.1483
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