corrigible

corrigible

English

Etymology

From Middle English corrigible, corigyble, from Old French corrigible.

Adjective

corrigible (comparative more corrigible, superlative most corrigible)

1. Able to be corrected or set right.

   Synonym: correctable

   Antonym: incorrigible

   • 1859, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, London: John W. Parker & Son, Chapter 2, p. 38,

     Why is it, then, that there is on the whole a preponderance among mankind of rational opinions and rational conduct? […] it is owing to a quality of the human mind, the source of everything respectable in man either as an intellectual or as a moral being, namely, that his errors are corrigible.

2. (obsolete) Submissive to correction

   Synonym: docile

   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene xiv]:

     Wouldst thou […] see
     Thy master thus with pleach’d arms, bending down
     His corrigible neck […]

3. (obsolete) Deserving chastisement.

   Synonym: punishable

   • 1640, I. H. [i.e., James Howell], “Prince Rocalino’s Journey to Elaiana”, in ΔΕΝΔΡΟΛΟΓΊΑ [DENDROLOGIA]. Dodona’s Grove, or, The Vocall Forrest, London: […] T[homas] B[adger] for H. Mosley [i.e., Humphrey Moseley] […], OCLC 987785018:

     […] he was taken up very short, and adjudgd corrigible for such presumptuous language.

4. (obsolete) Having power to correct.

   Synonym: corrective

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.

Related terms

• corrigibleness
• corrigibility
• incorrigible

Translations

able to be corrected — see correctable

See also

• correctable

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French

Adjective

corrigible (plural corrigibles)

1. corrigible; correctable

Further reading

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