Approachability

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being friendly and easy to talk to or reach
2. The characteristic of seeming accessible and welcoming to others
3. A feature of being open and inviting enough to allow easy communication

Etymology: Approachability is built from "approach" and the suffix "-ability", and the suffix is where most of its history lies. The suffix travelled a long road: it began in Proto-Italic forms that became Latin "-bilis" and "-abilis", which meant something like "able to be" the action of the base word. Latin then formed "-abilitas" from those adjectives, and the resulting noun pattern passed through Middle French as "-ablete" before arriving in Middle English as "-ablete" and then "-ability". The base word "approach" is the older and more familiar piece. It came into English through Old French "aprochier", ultimately from Latin "appropiare", meaning to draw near to something. So the full word simply means the quality of being able to be drawn near to. Its modern sense of warm, open, easy to talk to developed from that physical idea of getting close to someone.

Synonyms: accessibility, approachableness, friendliness, openness, welcomeness

Antonyms: inaccessibility, aloofness, unapproachability, detachment, coldness