placable

See also: plaçable

English

Etymology

From Latin placabilis.

Adjective

placable (comparative more placable, superlative most placable)

Able to be easily pacified; quick to forgive.
- 1577, Meredith Hanmer (translator), The Auncient Ecclesiasticall Histories of the First Six Hundred Yeares after Christ, London, The Seventh Booke of the Ecclesiasticall Historye of Eusebius Pamphilus Bishop of Caesarea in Palaestina, Chapter 17,^[1]
  […] after that the deuine and celestiall grace of God behelde vs with a placable and mercifull countenance, then our princes, euen they which heretofore warred against vs, after a wonderfull manner chaunged their opinion […]
- 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 148–152:
  […] For ſince I ſaught
  By Prayer th' offended Deitie to appeaſe,
  Kneel'd and before him humbl'd all my heart,
  Methought I ſaw him placable and mild,
  Bending his eare;
- 1759, David Hume, chapter 6, in The History of England under the House of Tudor‎^[2], London: A. Millar, page 668:
  Essex, who was placable, as well as hasty and passionate, was soon appeased, and both received Raleigh into favour, and restored the other officers to their command.
- 1819, Walter Scott, chapter 20, in The Bride of Lammermoor‎^[3]:
  Ravenswood pleaded, apologised, and even kneeled, to appease her displeasure; and Lucy, as placable as she was single-hearted, readily forgave the offence which his doubts had implied.
Peaceable; quiet.
- 1571, Plutarch, translated by Edward Grant, A President for Parentes‎^[4], London:
  to be fortunate without the grudge of enuy is the signe of a most quiet, peaceable, & placable man:
- 1799, Isaac D’Israeli, “Mejnoun and Leila, the Arabian Petrarch and Laura,” Part 3 in Romances, London: Cadell and Davies et al., p. 115,^[5]
  I care not for the honour of my friends, and am placable to the insult of an enemy. What is a man, alike incapable of friendship or of enmity?
- 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Pont de Montvert”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes‎^[6], Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 160:
  She waited the table with a heavy placable nonchalance, like a performing cow […]
- 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 16, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 392:
  Rachel was on the phone in the drawing room, talking to Gerald in Westminster, and seemed to be getting the reassurances she needed; she was oddly placable.
(obsolete) Having the effect of pacifying, appeasing or pleasing.
- 1538, Erasmus Sarcerius, chapter 36, in Richard Taverner, transl., Common Places of Scripture‎^[7], London:
  The scripture is ful of places whiche teache these sacrifyces to be moste acceptable to god, & therfore often tyme they be called odours or sauours moste swete placable sacrifyces, acceptable offerynges to god.
- c. 1542, Andrew Boorde, chapter 2, in A Compendyous Regyment or a Dyetary of Healthe‎^[8], London:
  And that euery thyng be desent & sayre to the eye, nat onely within the precyncte of the place appoynted to buylde a mansyon or a house to se the commodites aboute it, but also it may be placable to the eyes of all men to se & to beholde when they be a good dystaunce of from the place, that it do stande commodyously.
- 1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Malachias 2:13, page 886:
  And this agayne haue you done, you couered the altar of the Lord with teares, with weeping, and howling, ſo that I haue reſpect no more to ſacrifice, neither do I accept any placable thing at your hand.

Related terms