a. Also -ible. [UN-1 7 b, 7, and 5 b.] Unfit or unsuitable for social converse.
α. 1593. Nashe, Strange Newes, Ep. Ded. I loue and admire thy pleasant wittie humor, which no care or crosse can make vnconuersable.
1681. J. Scott, Chr. Life, I. iii. § 3. In what a miserable state shall we be, when every Member of our Society shall be of the same unconversable Temper with our selves.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., I. (1703), 79. What a rugged, tempestuous, unconversable mortal was Achilles.
1728. Swift, Lett. to Carteret, 18 Jan. If I had not been confined to my chamber by the continuance of my unconversable disorder [i.e., deafness].
1803. Lamb, Lett. to Manning, in Final Mem., vii. 69. Among nasty, unconversable, horse-belching, Tartar-people.
β. 1674. Govt. Tongue, 158. Nothing rendering a man so unconversible [as pride].
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2302/2. The Ignorance or unconversible Humor of the Turks.
1736. H. Walpole, Lett. (1861), I. 9. Great mathematicians have been of great use, but the generality of them are quite unconversible.
Hence Unconversableness.
1684. H. More, Answer, 315. Contemptuousness, Malepertness against their Betters,… Unconversableness.
1702. S. Parker, trans. Cicero’s De Finibus, I. 45. The many … Dangers and Frights that go along with Unconversableness and Solitude.
