Agreeability

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being compliant, demonstrating a pleasant disposition, and showing willingness to concur with others
2. The state of having a cooperative nature, being amiable, and exhibiting readiness to accept or align with differing opinions
3. An attribute characterized by friendliness, a propensity for harmony in interactions, and a tendency to be accommodating in discussions

Etymology: The noun "agreeability" has a surprising ancestor: Geoffrey Chaucer used a version of it in Middle English, spelled "aggreablete" or "agreablete," to mean something close to a favorable disposition or tolerance. That older form was borrowed from Middle French "agréableté," which sits in a family of words for pleasing or accommodating someone. The modern English noun was not simply inherited from that line, however. It was built on the adjective "agreeable," which came into English from Old French "agreable," and then formed by analogy with the suffix "-ability," the pattern found in words like "capability" and "reliability." The result is that the noun is partly a revival of a medieval word and partly a fresh construction. Chaucer's form had mostly vanished from use by the time the modern version took shape, so the two are linked more by sound and sense than by continuous use. The surface structure of the word still shows its parts plainly: "agree," plus "-able," plus the "-ity" ending, which makes it a noun from the adjective "agreeable."

Synonyms: affability, amenability

Antonyms: disagreeability