a. and sb. Also 5–6 Sc. venerabill (5 -ille). [a. OF. venerable (mod.F. vénérable, = Sp. venerable, Pg. veneravel, It. venerabile) or ad. L. venerābilis, f. venerārī to venerate.]
A. adj. 1. Of persons: Worthy of being venerated, revered or highly respected and esteemed, on account of character or position: a. As an epithet of ecclesiastics (or ecclesiastical bodies), now spec. of archdeacons or, in the Roman Catholic Church, of those who have attained the first degree of canonization. (Freq. abbreviated as Ven.)
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), V. 187. Venerable faders of religion were in Egipte in this tyme.
1437. Dunfermline Reg. (Bann. Cl.), 285. A venerabill fadir in crist Androw … Abbot of Dunfermlyn.
1455. Reg. Aberdon. (Maitland Cl.), I. 275. Be it kende … me Valter of Deskfurde … to be oblysit … til ane venerabille man master Johnne of Clat.
1500. Reg. Privy Seal Scotl., I. 69/1. Ane Letter … to ane venerable fader Henry, abbot of Cambuskynneth.
a. 1700. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (1911), IX. 336. Much Relishing venble Father Bakers … Bookes, wch she write out and faithfully practised.
1730. T. Boston, Mem., xii. 418. Having the Dissent by me in writ, from which I read it before this Venerable Assembly [the synod].
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 103. Here … lie together the sacred bodies of the venerable fathers Sosius and Severinus.
1834. K. H. Digby, Mores Cath., V. iv. 110. In the same age, Peter the Venerable, of Cluny, was defending the use of them [organs] against the Petrobrusians.
1872. The Month, Aug., 25. The Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser … died in Germany in 1658.
1894. Daily News, 29 Jan., 5. Joan of Arc has been … declared ‘venerable’ by the Congregation of Rites. That is … the first step to saintship.
b. In general use. rare.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 131. Hee was … a man so venerable amongst both the Christians, and Heathen, that his ordinary style was, The Doctor of whole Asia.
1681. in Ingleby, Shaks. Cent. Praise (Shaks. Soc.), 386. I can’t … omit the first Famous Masters in’t of our Nation, Venerable Shakespear and the great Ben Johnson.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), III. 195. We have often regretted the particular fault, which, though in venerable characters, we must have been blind not to see.
1755. W. Duncan, Cicero’s Sel. Orat., ix. (1816), 297. It is with justice … that Ennius bestows upon poets the epithet of venerable.
c. Const. for (something) or to (persons). rare.
1653. Vaux, trans. Godeau’s St. Paul, 53. A man even to his enemies venerable for his piety.
1713. Berkeley, Ess. Guardian, i. Wks. III. 144. Persons who have devoted themselves to the service of God are venerable to all who fear Him.
1849–50. Alison, Hist. Europe, II. viii. § 29. 256. The Archbishop of Arles, venerable for his years and his virtues.
2. Commanding veneration or respect by reason of age combined with high personal character and dignity of appearance; having an impressive appearance in virtue of years and personal qualities.
c. 1480. Henryson, Fables, Lion & Mouse, 64. I said, Esope, my Maister Uenerabill, I ȝow beseik [etc.].
1515. Barclay, Egloges, ii. (1570), B j b/2. Suche men with princes be sene more acceptable Then men of wisedome & clarkes venerable.
1545. Joye, Exp. Dan., vi. 86 b. Daniel was now a right venerable sage olde father more then lxxx. yeares olde.
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Horn-bk., Proem. 4. O thou venerable father of antient (and therefore hoary) customes, Syluanus, I inuoke thy assistance.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 130. Man shews more venerable, especially if by age his hairs be every where fairly superaboundantly circumfused.
1687. T. Brown, Saints in Uproar, Wks. 1730, I. 73. A venerable old gentleman, who, they say, had been high pontiff of Rome in the days of yore.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 87. Said to be the House of Simeon, that venerable old Prophet.
1787. Burns, Lett. J. Skinner, 25 Oct. Reverend and Venerable Sir, Accept … my most sincere thanks [etc.].
1847. Mrs. A. Kerr, trans. Ranke’s Hist. Servia, 303. Amongst those executed before Belgrade were venerable Senators … and aged and renowned Woiwodes.
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, i. A white beard which made him look venerable against his will.
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, IV. ii. 143. A venerable country gentleman who had seen a great deal of the world.
transf. 1878. Stevenson, Inland Voy., 4. Cattle and gray venerable horses came and hung their mild heads over the embankment.
b. Applied to personal features or attributes of these.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XXIV. 325. The father, with a father’s fears: (His venerable eyes bedimm’d with tears).
1738. Glover, Leonidas, II. 192. His slender hairs, which time had silver’d o’er, Flow’d venerable down.
1808. W. Wilson, Hist. Dissent. Ch., II. 50. Mr. Barker was in person well made,… and of a venerable appearance.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxx. He wore a breast-plate, over which descended a grey beard of venerable length.
1861. Paley, Æschylus (ed. 2), Supplices, 314, note. The king might naturally call the old man πάνσοφος from his prudence and venerable aspect.
3. Of things: a. Worthy of, to be regarded with, religious reverence.
1504. Lady Margaret, trans. De Imitatione, IV. i. 261. Wherefore than shulde nat I be more inflamed in thy venerable presence?
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 173. Our Lordes holy woundes fiue, His handes, his feete, and his crosse venerable.
1596. Bell, Surv. Popery, III. x. 405. How wilt thou touch thy mouth with his venerable blood?
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 339. Among the vnequall numbers the seauenth hath the first place, whose maiesty and diuinitie is so great, that the antients tearmed it sacred and venerable.
1642. Jer. Taylor, Episc. (1647), 169. A Bishop hath no new power in the consecration of the Venerable Eucharist, more then a Presbyter hath.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), I. 539. The day of Expiation was … much more sacred and venerable than the common sabbath.
1837. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., I. 322. What a venerable and fearful place is a Church.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., III. iii. § 12. A strong natural feeling of reverence accumulates a store of ideas of things venerable.
1879. Chr. G. Rossetti, Seek & Find, 308. Awful then and by us venerable is the dignity of each Christian priest.
b. Worthy of veneration or deep respect; deserving to be revered on account of noble qualities or associations.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 81. Ios from Naxus 24 miles, venerable for the sepulchre of Homer.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. viii. 33. Holy Writers, and such whose names are venerable unto all posterity.
1665. Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., 77. To oppose what custom and great names have render’d venerable.
1700. Rowe, Ambit. Step-Mother, I. i. The thoughts of Princes dwell in sacred Privacy Unknown and venerable to the Vulgar.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., X. Wks. 1813, III. 207. The ancient and venerable fabric of the German Constitution.
1830. Mackintosh, Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, I. 93. Those qualities which are naturally amiable or venerable.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. I. 74. Throughout the whole course of his reign, all the venerable associations by which the throne had long been fenced were gradually losing their strength.
c. Fitted to excite feelings of veneration; impressive, august.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 70. For it is a venerable sight to see a man when he is come to the yeares fit for it, to haue his face compassed about with thicke and comely haire.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Conti, 31 July. We saw … yet standing the vast pillars of a temple of Minerva. This venerable sight made me think … on a beautiful temple of Theseus.
1737. Whiston, Josephus, Antiq., XI. viii. § 5. The procession was venerable, and the manner of it different from that of other nations.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 110. While oft some temple’s mould’ring tops between With venerable grandeur mark the scene.
4. Worthy of veneration or respect on account of age or antiquity; rendered impressive by the appearance of age.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 738. An affectionate lover of venerable Antiquity.
1653. Vaux, trans. Godeau’s St. Paul, 151. Against an ancient tradition, which to many seems so venerable.
1671. F. Philipps, Reg. Necess., Ep. Ded. Those evidences and venerable Monuments of Time, being the vestigia and footsteps of antient Laws and Customs are not to be much respected.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 178. His looks adorn’d the venerable place.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), II. 421. Thus it is that you are clothed with majesty, venerable ruins of Greece and Rome!
1817. Moore, Lalla Rookh (1824), 171. That venerable tower, he told them, was the remains of an ancient Fire-temple.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, iii. In the midst of Cloisterham stands the nuns’ house, a venerable brick edifice.
1904. J. T. Fowler, Durham Univ., 63. The oldest of the venerable lime-trees date from time immemorial.
absol. 1693. Dryden, Juvenal (1697), p. lxxxv. Ancient Words, which, with all their Rusticity, had somewhat of Venerable in them.
b. Ancient, antique, old.
1792. S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., I. 65. Those muskets cased with venerable rust.
1842. H. Rogers, Introd. Burke’s Wks., I. 1. Thus a single generation often witnesses the complete demolition of certain venerable errors, propagated and believed through a long succession of ages.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, xi. Chests in oak or walnut,… rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow.
1857. Grindon, Life, iv. 35. The periodical (atomic) renewal of the body is one of the most venerable ideas in physiology.
† 5. Giving evidence of veneration; reverent, reverential. Obs. (So L. venerabilis.)
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 145. They speake in order, and obserue euen without the house a venerable silence.
1624. Fisher, in F. White, Repl. Fisher, 224. Kissing their feet, and their sores, out of venerable affection vnto Christ.
1675. G. R., trans. Le Grand’s Man without Passion, 77. Although I have a venerable value for the favourers of this opinion.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1752), 7. The Venerable presents of some Itinerant Fryars.
1710. Shaftesb., Charact. (1737), II. II. 269. To talk magisterially and in venerable Terms of … an Infinite Being.
6. Comb., as venerable-like, -looking adjs.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VI. 264. Wee found twelue Venerable like Turkes.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar, xiv. Was he not a venerable-looking man, with grey hair?
1854. trans. Hettner’s Athens & Peloponnese, 31. Tall, venerable-looking men, with noble features.
B. sb. A venerable person; an ecclesiastic having the title of ‘Venerable.’
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, VI. 122. Lord M. has engaged the two venerables to stay here, to attend the issue.
1826. Southey, Vind. Eccl. Angl., 444. But can heresy have come from the Venerables and Saints of the Romish Church?
1891. Meredith, One of our Conq., xxxv. He described his country’s male venerables as being distinguishable from annuitant spinsters only in presenting themselves forked.
b. A venerable thing; an antique. nonce-use.
1803. Southey, Lett. (1856), I. 222. My old and ugly stall-gleanings are all now turning to account…. In turning over these venerables, you would be surprised to see how much I find that bears upon biography.
