affability

From affable + -ity.

• IPA^(key): /ˌæfəˈbɪlɪti/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɪlɪti

affability (countable and uncountable, plural affabilities)

1. The state or quality of being affable, friendly, or approachable.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     O conspiracy,
     Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
     When evils are most free? O, then by day
     Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
     To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;
     Hide it in smiles and affability:

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 3, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XVI, page 191:

     The Landlady […] was not without some Concern for the Confinement of poor Sophia, of whose great Sweetness of Temper and Affability the Maid of the House had made so favourable a Report, which was confirmed by all the Squire’s Servants […]

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XIV, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 251:

     […] he would sometimes pass me haughtily and coldly, just acknowledging my presence by a distant nod or a cool glance, and sometimes bow and smile with gentlemanlike affability.

   • 1938, C. L. R. James, chapter 11, in The Black Jacobins‎^[1], New York: Vintage, published 1989, page 251:

     He [Toussaint L'Ouverture] knew how to listen to a subordinate officer with dignity and yet with affability.

• unaffability