estimable
English
Etymology
From Middle English estimable, estymable, from Old French estimable, from Latin aestimābilis. Equivalent to esteem + -able and estimate + -able.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɛstɪməbəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
estimable (comparative more estimable, superlative most estimable)
- Worthy of esteem; admirable.
- Synonyms: creditable, reverend, venerable; see also Thesaurus:respectable
- Near-synonyms: esteemed, revered
- 1715–1720, Homer, “Book VI”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, section footnote:
- [Homer] allows their characters such estimable qualities as could consist, and in truth generally do, with tender frailties.
- 1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
- Mr. March told […] how devoted Brooke had been, and how he was altogether a most estimable and upright young man.
- 1912, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], chapter I, in The Unbearable Bassington, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company; […], →OCLC, page 9:
- Francesca Bassington sat in the drawing-room of her house in Blue Street, W., regaling herself and her estimable brother Henry with China tea and small cress sandwiches.
- 2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Profitable Wonders”, in Medical Apartheid[1], Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 52:
- For all this, the worn collodion image gracing his memoirs shows a man of estimable appearance in a sober woolen suit and brocade waistcoat.
- (archaic) Valuable.
- Synonyms: estimable, prizable; see also Thesaurus:valuable
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
- A pound of man's flesh taken from a man
Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.
- Capable of being estimated; estimatable.
- 1928, Louis Kahlenberg, Norbert Barwasser, “On the time of Absorption and Excretion of Boric Acid in Man”, in Journal of Biological Chemistry, volume 79, number 2, page 406:
- After this time boric acid is always present in estimable amounts.
- 1999, Jordi Galí, Mark Gertler, “Inflation dynamics: A structural econometric analysis”, in Journal of Monetary Economics, volume 44, page 198:
- In this section we review the recent theory that generates an estimable Phillips curve relation.
Derived terms
Further reading
- “estimable”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Catalan
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin aestimabilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [əs.tiˈmab.blə]
- IPA(key): (Valencia) [es.tiˈma.ble]
- IPA(key): (Northwestern) [es.tiˈmab.ble]
Adjective
estimable m or f (masculine and feminine plural estimables)
- esteemed
- estimable, estimatable (capable of being estimated)
Further reading
- “estimable”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
- “estimable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
- “estimable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “estimable”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)
French
Etymology
Etymology tree
Inherited from Middle French estimable, from estimer + -able. By surface analysis, estimer + -able.
Adjective
estimable (plural estimables)
Descendants
- → Romanian: estimabil
References
- “estimable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
Middle French
Etymology
Etymology tree
From estimer + -able. Attested since the 15th c.
Adjective
estimable m or f (plural estimables)
Descendants
References
- “estimable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
Spanish
Etymology
Etymology tree
Possibly from Latin aestimābilis, from aestimāre + -bilis. (Can this(+) etymology be sourced? Particularly: “very hesitant to say explicitly inherited from Latin; DRAE does not specify”)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /estiˈmable/ [es.t̪iˈma.β̞le]
Audio (Costa Rica): (file) - Rhymes: -able
- Syllabification: es‧ti‧ma‧ble
Adjective
estimable m or f (masculine and feminine plural estimables)
Related terms
Further reading
- “estimable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 24th edition, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 30 October 2026
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms suffixed with -able
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with archaic senses
- Catalan terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂éyos
- Catalan learned borrowings from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *temh₁-
- Catalan terms borrowed from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Catalan terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eys-
- Catalan terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Catalan terms derived from Old Latin
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan adjectives
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- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms derived from Proto-Italic
- French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂éyos
- French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *temh₁-
- French terms derived from Latin
- French terms derived from Old Latin
- French terms inherited from Middle French
- French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eys-
- French terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- French terms derived from Middle French
- French terms suffixed with -able
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- Middle French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂éyos
- Middle French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *temh₁-
- Middle French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eys-
- Middle French terms suffixed with -able
- Middle French lemmas
- Middle French adjectives
- Spanish terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eys-
- Spanish terms derived from Old Latin
- Spanish terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *temh₁-
- Spanish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Spanish terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂éyos
- Spanish terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish 4-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/able
- Rhymes:Spanish/able/4 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish adjectives
- Spanish epicene adjectives