Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
ABLEST
Etymology
Adjective
ablest
superlative form of able: most able
Anagrams
• Bestla, ablets, bastle, belast, blates, bleats, stable, tables
Source: Wiktionary
ABLE
A"ble, a. [Comp. Abler; superl. Ablest.] Etym: [OF. habile, L. habilis that may be easily held or managed, apt, skillful, fr. habere to have, hold. Cf. Habile and see Habit.]
1. Fit; adapted; suitable. [Obs.] A many man, to ben an abbot able. Chaucer.
2. Having sufficient power, strength, force, skill, means, or resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to endure pain; able to play on a piano.
3. Specially: Having intellectual qualifications, or strong mental powers; showing ability or skill; talented; clever; powerful; as, the ablest man in the senate; an able speech. No man wrote abler state papers. Macaulay.
4. (Law)
Definition: Legally qualified; possessed of legal competence; as, able to inherit or devise property.
Note: Able for, is Scotticism. "Hardly able for such a march." Robertson.
Syn.
– Competent; qualified; fitted; efficient; effective; capable; skillful; clever; vigorous; powerful.
A"ble, v. t. Etym: [See Able, a.] [Obs.]
1. To make able; to enable; to strengthen. Chaucer.
2. To vouch for. "I 'll able them." Shak.
*a*ble. Etym: [F. -able, L. -abilis.]
Definition: An adjective suffix now usually in a passive sense; able to be; fit to be; expressing capacity or worthiness in a passive sense; as, movable, able to be moved; amendable, able to be amended; blamable, fit to be blamed; salable.
Note: The form ible is used in the same sense.
Note: It is difficult to say when we are not to use -able instead of -ible. "Yet a rule may be laid down as to when we are to use it. To all verbs, then, from the Anglo-Saxon, to all based on the uncorrupted infinitival stems of Latin verbs of the first conjugation, and to all substantives, whencesoever sprung, we annex - able only." Fitzed. Hall.
*a*ble. Etym: [F. -able, L. -abilis.]
Definition: An adjective suffix now usually in a passive sense; able to be; fit to be; expressing capacity or worthiness in a passive sense; as, movable, able to be moved; amendable, able to be amended; blamable, fit to be blamed; salable.
Note: The form ible is used in the same sense.
Note: It is difficult to say when we are not to use -able instead of -ible. "Yet a rule may be laid down as to when we are to use it. To all verbs, then, from the Anglo-Saxon, to all based on the uncorrupted infinitival stems of Latin verbs of the first conjugation, and to all substantives, whencesoever sprung, we annex - able only." Fitzed. Hall.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
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