Able
Able ({not transcribed}) , adjective
[Old French habile, Latin habilis that may be easily held or managed, apt, skillful, from habere to have, hold. Compare Habile and see Habit.]
1.
Fit; adapted; suitable. [Obsolete]
A many man, to ben an abbot able.
2.
Having sufficient power, strength, force, skill, means, or resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to endure pain; able to play on a piano.
3.
Specially: Having intellectual qualifications, or strong mental powers; showing ability or skill; talented; clever; powerful; as, the ablest man in the senate; an able speech.
No man wrote abler state papers.
4.
(Law) Legally qualified; possessed of legal competence; as, able to inherit or devise property.
“Hardly able for such a march.”
Able for, is Scotticism. “Hardly able for such a march.” Robertson.
Able , transitive verb
[See Able, a.]
1.
To make able; to enable; to strengthen. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
2.
To vouch for.
I 'll able them.
-able (-ȧ*b'l)
[French -able, Latin -abilis.]
An adjective suffix now usually in a passive sense; able to be; fit to be; expressing capacity or worthiness in a passive sense; as, movable, able to be moved; amendable, able to be amended; blamable, fit to be blamed; salable.
The form -ible is used in the same sense.
It is difficult to say when we are not to use -able instead of -ible. “Yet a rule may be laid down as to when we are to use it. To all verbs, then, from the Anglo-Saxon, to all based on the uncorrupted infinitival stems of Latin verbs of the first conjugation, and to all substantives, whencesoever sprung, we annex -able only.”