nameable

English

Alternative forms

• namable

Etymology

From name +‎ -able.

Adjective

nameable (not comparable)

1. Capable of being distinguished and named; able to be called by a specific name.
   • 1635, Alexander Gill, The Sacred Philosophie of Holy Scripture, London: Joyce Norton and Richard Whitaker, Chapter 8, p. 30,^[1]

     [God’s] pure being, because it is neither understandable, nor nameable by us, we speake of goodnesse, of power, &c. as of the effluences or prime acts thereof […]

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Search for Mr. Hyde”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‎^[2], London: Longmans, Green, page 25:

     Mr. Hyde […] gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation […]

   • 2007 June 20, Trev Broughton, “More work for Margery Allingham”, in The Times Literary Supplement‎^[3]:

     The vogue for the sleuth-flâneur […] in the first half of the twentieth century has encouraged recent attempts to map the rise of British detective fiction, and its subsequent love affair with the thriller, onto the shifts in national morale precipitated by international conflict. One train of thought, for instance, suggests that the genre provides nameable, explicable corpses to mourn, after the senseless obliterations of the First World War.

   • 2014 June 6, Griffin McElroy, “Tomodachi Life review”, in Polygon‎^[4]:

     There's a strange kind of power in games like that; like XCOM, with its nameable soldiers, or The Sims' customizable families.

   • 2019 February 9, Susannah Felts, “Grits more than 'fuel in a box'”, in Knoxville News Sentinel‎^[5]:

     Grits have been part of the story of the South as long as the South has been a nameable region — and they were around long before that, too.

2. (obsolete) Worthy of being named or having a name; significant; memorable (especially in negative expressions).
   • c. 1785, Josiah Ringsted, The Cattle-Keeper’s Assistant‎^[6], 7th edition, London: J. Dixwell, page 52:

     […] the culture [of alfalfa] is not very expensive, though the profit is not nameable till the second or third year, when the cuttings are considerable […]

   • 1810, William Coleman, An Appeal to the People, New York: C.S. Van Winkle, p. 72,^[7]

     A mission hatched by Jefferson under the pretence of forming a commercial treaty, though we have neither trade of any nameable amount with Russia, nor any political concerns with her […]

Synonyms

• (specific name): distinguishable, identifiable, recognisable
• (memorable): See also Thesaurus:memorable or Thesaurus:notable

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “specific name”): nameless, unidentifiable, unnameable, unrecognisable; see also Thesaurus:indescribable
• (antonym(s) of “memorable”): forgettable, irrelevant

Anagrams

• amenable, beanmeal, meanable