affable

affable

English

WOTD – 4 January 2009

Etymology

French affable, Latin affābilis, from affor (“I address”), from ad + for (“speak, talk”). See fable.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈæf.ə.bəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Adjective

affable (comparative more affable, superlative most affable)

1. Receiving others kindly and conversing with them in a free and friendly manner; friendly, courteous, sociable.
   • 1912, James Burrill Angell, “chapter ix Mission To The Ottoman Empire”, in The Reminiscences Of James Burrill Angell:

     Furthermore, I may say, that the Sultan was always most affable to me in my interviews with him, even when I had to discuss some missionary questions. In fact, I never saw any traces of the difficulties which Mr. Terrell reported.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Chief White Halfoat”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, OCLC 1023879857, page 45:

     […] He stood bolt upright instead with his stumpy arms resting comfortably on the backsof the pilot's and co-pilot's seats, pipe in hand, making affable small talk to McWatt and whoever happened to be co-pilot and pointing out amusing trivia in the sky to the two men, who were too busy to be interested.

2. Mild; benign.
   • 1998, Alexia Maria Kosmider, Tricky Tribal Discourse, page 84:

     During more affable weather, the four friends congregate outside, sometimes leaning their hickory chairs against a "catapa" tree […]

Synonyms

• (friendly, courteous): accessible, civil, complaisant, courteous, friendly, gracious, personable
• (mild, benign): benign, mild, warm

Antonyms

• inaffable
• unaffable

Derived terms

• affability
• affableness
• affably

Related terms

• fable
• fabulous
• fame
• fandango
• fatal
• fate
• fatuous
• fay
• ineffable
• infamous
• infamy
• infant
• infantile
• infantry
• nefarious
• preface

 

Translations

friendly, courteous, sociable

Azerbaijani: gülərüz Bulgarian: приветлив (bg) (privetliv), вежлив (bg) (vežliv), любезен (bg) (ljubezen), внимателен (bg) (vnimatelen) Czech: vlídný (cs), přívětivý (cs) Dutch: gemoedelijk (nl), welwillend (nl) Esperanto: afabla (eo) Finnish: mukava (fi) French: aimable (fr) Galician: afábel (gl) German: umgänglich (de), affabel (de) Italian: affabile (it) Kazakh: жайдары (jaidary) Latin: affābilis Maori: wahawaha, hoahoa, takahoahoa, whakahoahoa, hūmārie, ratarata Norwegian: Bokmål: hyggelig (no), vennlig (no), elskverdig Plautdietsch: schaftich Polish: sympatyczny (pl), arcymiły (pl) Portuguese: afável (pt) Romanian: cordial (ro), afabil (ro) Russian: приве́тливый (ru) (privétlivyj) Scottish Gaelic: suairce Spanish: afable (es) Swedish: älskvärd (sv), förbindlig (sv), vänlig (sv) Turkish: arkadaş canlısı (tr) Ukrainian: привітний m (pryvitnyj), люб'язний m (ljubʺjaznyj)

mild; benign

Czech: vlídný (cs), přívětivý (cs) French: doux (fr) German: umgänglich (de) Italian: bonario (it), amabile (it) Norwegian: velvillig (no), hyggelig (no) Polish: życzliwy (pl) Russian: любе́зный (ru) (ljubéznyj) Scottish Gaelic: tlàth Spanish: amable (es), tranquilo (es) Turkish: içten (tr)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “affable”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin affābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.fabl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -abl
• Homophone: affables

Adjective

affable (plural affables)

1. affable, amicable, sociable

Related terms

• affablement
• affabuler
• affabilité

Further reading

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