[a. Fr. affabilité (14th c. in Litt.) n. of quality f. AFFABLE: see -ITY.]
The quality of being affable; readiness to converse or be addressed—especially by inferiors or equals; courteousness, civility, openness of manner.
1483. Caxton, Cato, a iiij b. Drawe and enclyne hym to loue and affabylite.
1531. Elyot, Governour (1580), 95. Affability … is also where a man speaketh courteysly with a sweet speach or countenance, wherewith the hearers (as it were with a delycate odour) be refreshed and allured to love him.
1603. T. Wilson, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 246, III. 201. That gracious affabilitye which ther good old Queen did afford them.
1656. Trapp, Expos. Luke xv. i. (1868), 328/2. Affability easily allureth, austerity discourageth.
1774. Mrs. Chapone, Improv. Mind, I. 168. Treat … inferiors … always with affability.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxviii. 281. Greeting the other two gentlemen with his usual politeness and affability.
