personable

adj

Etymology: From Late Middle English personable, personabil (“having a pleasing appearance, handsome”), and then from both of the following: * For sense 1 (“having a pleasing appearance”) and sense 2 (“having a pleasant manner”) (these senses are not found in Old French or Medieval Latin), probably from person, personne, persoun (“individual, person”) + -āble (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’ forming adjectives). * For sense 3.1 (“synonym of personal”) and sense 3.2 (“being a legal person”), from Middle French personable and Old French personable, and from their etymon Medieval Latin personābilis (“personal”), possibly from Medieval Latin persōna (“person”) + Latin -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’). By surface analysis, person + -able (suffix meaning ‘relevant or suitable to’).

1. Of a person: having a pleasing appearance; attractive; handsome.

   “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; […]”

   “I admit him a personable man, for I have seen him; and I will suppose him courteous and agreeable.”

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.”

   “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.”

3. Synonym of personal (“done in person, without an intermediary”).
4. 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 be good, albeit there be no livery and ſeiſin delivered vpon the ſame, vvherein are certain proviſions.”

   “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, as the Ciuillians vvould ſpeake it, habere perſonam ſtandi in iudicio.”