a. [a. Fr. affable (14th c. in Litt.) ad. L. affābilis easy to be spoken to; f. affāri or adfāri to address; f. ad to + fāri to speak.]
Easy of conversation or address; civil and courteous in receiving and responding to the conversation or address of others—especially inferiors or equals; accostable, courteous, complaisant, benign. (Const. to comparatively recent.)
1540. Whitinton, Tullyes Offyce, I. 50. Ulysses … wolde shewe hym selfe to all persones effable and gentyll to speake vnto.
1545. Joye, Expos. Dan., xi. (R.). He was prudent, comely, princely, affable, ientle and amiable.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 168. Valiant as a Lyon, and wondrous affable.
1610. B. Jonson, Alchem., II. iii. (1616), 628. [She is] the most affablest creatur, sir! so merry!
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 42. Raphaël, The affable archangel.
1723. J. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 53. Gentle his look, and affable his mien.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. vii. 27. When not stirred up by passion he was gentle and affable to all men.
† b. Formerly used more loosely. Obs.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 501. The judiciall and affable judgements of this age.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. (1851), 148. The learned and affable meeting of frequent Academies.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 101, ¶ 5. A Country Foxhunter … shall in a Week’s Time look with a courtly and affable Paleness.
