copulable

English

Etymology

From copulate +‎ -able.

Adjective

copulable (comparative more copulable, superlative most copulable)

1. Able to be sexually penetrated; available as a target for copulation.
   • 2001, Ashley Montagu, The Anatomy of Swearing, page 138:

     Here damn is also presented as a play on the word dam, that is, a copulable female.

   • 2001, Radical Philosophy - Issues 105-110, page 34:

     The prominent American anthropologist Donald Symons endorses these 'new' theories. For over two decades he too has promoted the 'Darwinian truth' that the human female, just by existing, and being 'continuously copulable', triggers in every passing male the desire to pursue 'easy, anonymous, impersonal, unencumbered sex' with an 'endless succession' of them.

   • 2002, Paul R. Abramson, Steven D. Pinkerton, With Pleasure: Thoughts on the Nature of Human Sexuality, page 109:

     Many female primates (including women) are considered to be "continuously copulable," meaning that copulation can take place anytime, not just at certain points in the estrus cycle.

   • 2015, David M. Buss, The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Volume 1: Foundation, page 404:

     Beach goes on to say, "Although human females are not continuously 'sexually receptive,' they are continuously 'copulable'; and their sexual arousability does not depend on ovarian hormones.

2. (more generally) Able to engage in sexual reproduction.
   • 1929 September, George K. K. Link, “Reproduction in Thallophytes, with special reference to fungi”, in The Botanical Gazette, volume 88, number 1:

     Those which produce copulable copulants in one individual are designated as monoecious, while those in which copulable copulants must come from different individuals are considered dioecious.

Noun

copulable

1. (semiotics) A copulant.
   • 2013, O.K. Wiegand, Robert J. Dostal, Lester Embree, Phenomenology on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic, page 277:

     But the copula is related to the copulable, so the copula itself cannot be the abstractest representation

Derived terms

• copulability

 

Anagrams

• couplable