personable

Adjective

personable (comparative more personable, superlative most personable)

1. Of a person: having a pleasing appearance; attractive; handsome.
   • We ſee one woman, whiche by one man hath manie children, of theym ſome be fayre and perſonable, ſome ill fauoured and croked, […]1541, [Aelius Lampridius], “The Oracion of the Emperour Alexãder to the People of Rome”, in Thomas Elyote [i.e., Thomas Elyot], transl., The Image of Gouernaunce Complied of the Actes and Sentences...
   • I vvas Tall and Perſonable, but a little too ſmooth Fac'd for a Man; hovvever as I ſeldom vvent Abroad, but in the Night it did vvell enough; […]1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page...

   Synonyms:

   good-looking, attractive, beauteous, beautifool, beautiful, beautimous, bona vardering, bonnie, breathtaking, captivating

   Antonyms:

   unattractive, unpersonable, bad, beat, butters, butt-ugly, clapped, coyote ugly, deform, fuckfaced

2. Of a person: having a pleasant manner; amiable, friendly.
   • A thouſand thoughts ſhe faſhioned in her mind, / And in her feigning fancie did pourtray / Him ſuch, as fitteſt he for loue could find, / VViſe, vvarlike, perſonable, courteous, and kind.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 445
   • I'm bound to admit that you're a personable young rascal, with the best manners I've met in a long time, but I warn you that you can't go far.1919, Joseph A[lexander] Altsheler, “Music in the Moonlight”, in The Sun of Quebec: A Story of a Great Crisis (The French and Indian War Series; 6), New York, N.Y.: Appleton-Century-Crofts, →OCLC...

   Synonyms:

   affable, agreeable, likeable, affectionate, amiable, bonhomous, amicable, chummy, companionable, congenial

   Antonyms:

   unpersonable, adverse, antagonistic, conflicting, contentious, counteracting, hostile, incompatible, inharmonious, inimical

3. (obsolete, rare) Synonym of personal (“done in person, without an intermediary”).

   Synonyms:

   personal

4. (obsolete) Being a legal person and thus able to maintain a plea in court, or to hold some property or right.
   • It is enacted, that the Kings Letters Patents hereafter enſuing made to Queen Elizabeth of her dovver, ſhall be good, and that the Queen be by that name perſonable to plead, and be impleaded, that parcell of her dovver aſſigned by the Kings Letters Patents under the ſeal of the Dutchy of Lancaſter...[1468, “Petitions of the Commons, with Their Summons”, in William Prynne, editor, An Exact Abridgement of the Records in the Tower of London, from the Reign of King Edward the Second, unto King...
   • The demaundant vvas iudged perſonable to maintaine this action. […] The tenent pleaded that the vvife vvas an alien borne in Portingall vvithout the ligeance of the King, and Iudgement vvas asked vvhether ſhe vvould be anſvvered. The plaintife ſaith: ſhee vvas made perſonable by Parlament, that is...1607, Iohn [i.e., John] Cowell, “Personable”, in The Interpreter: Or Booke Containing the Signification of Words: Wherein is Set Foorth the True Meaning of All, or the Most Part of Such Words and...