a. [f. TEACH v. + -ABLE.]
† 1. Able or apt to teach. Obs.
1483. Cath. Angl., 378/2. Techeabylle, docibilis, qui faciliter docet alios; docilis, qui faciliter docetur.
1641, 1695. [implied in TEACHABLENESS 2].
2. Capable of being taught (as a person); apt to receive instruction; docile; tractable.
1483. [see in 1].
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. ii. 7. And let such knowledge make us teachable.
1684. J. Scott, Chr. Life (ed. 3), 160. To keep our Minds in a teachable temper.
1725. Berkeley, Proposal, etc., Wks. 1871, III. 226. They are … less conceited, and more teachable.
1855. Kingsley, Heroes, Pref. (1868), 12. These old Greeks were teachable, and learnt from all the nations round.
3. Capable of being taught (as a subject); that may be communicated or imparted by instruction.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. III. v. 63. He brings in Socrates refuting that opinion of the Stoics, That virtue was … teachable.
1816. Bentham, Chrestom., 17. The subject,—in so far as teachable by exhibition of figure, colour, and other sensible qualities,—will be taught.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. VIII. ii. § 12. 174. To teach you … everything that is teachable.
Hence Teachability = next 1, 3.
1830. R. Mudie, Brit. Nat., Intro. 27–8. It is only in proportion as the animals resemble man, by possessing the faculty of teachability, which is the badge and character of reason, that those things can be said of them.
1872. Walter Smith, in Cornell Report, 30. I formed a very definite opinion about the teachability of the two sexes, taught in one class.
1876. Daily News, 4 Dec., 3/1. It requires an unusual modesty and teachability of disposition.
1882. Pop. Sc. Monthly, XXI. 436. Carnivores … exbibit only moderate teachability.
1887. St. G. Stock, Plato’s Meno, 26. The same diversity of opinion … with regard to the teachability of virtue.
