a. [f. prec. + -ABLE. Cf. F. surmontable.] That may be surmounted; conquerable, superable.
1611. Cotgr., Surmontable, surmountable, surpassable.
1669. Temple, Lett. to Ld. Arlington, Wks. 1720, II. 191. He saw there would be another Difficulty less surmountable than all the rest.
1745. Young, in Richardson’s Corr. (1804), II. 12. Evils they are, but surmountable ones.
a. 1806. Horsley, Serm., Luke iv. 18–19 (1816), I. 218. The temptations of all situations are equally surmountable.
1904. W. M. Ramsay, Lett. Seven Churches, iv. 49. The difficulties of cultivation are no longer surmountable by a passive and uninventive population.
Hence Surmountableness.
1847. in Webster.
