| 释义 |
underˈstandable, a.
Also 5 ondirstandabille.
[f. understand v. + -able.]
1. That can be understood; intelligible.
c1475Cath. Angl. 260/1 (MS. A), Ondirstandabille, jntelligibilis. 1577Holinshed Chron. II. 735/1 Their language was vnknowne, and not vnderstandable to any man that coulde bee brought to talke with them. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xii. xxi. 228 Whether the words of the charme be understandable or not, it skilleth not. 1625A. Gill Sacr. Philos. Pref., Faith is a supplie of reason in things understandable, as the imagination is of sight in things that are visible. 1651Baxter Inf. Baptism 82 Otherwise we might pervert all Scripture, and none of it would be understandable. a1670Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1851) II. 294 This vncouth act, scarss wnderstandabill, bred gryte feir and perturbatioun. 1799Southey in Life (1850) II. 34, I suffer a good deal from illness, and in a way hardly understandable by those in health. 1832Examiner 84/2 Putting the law in a readable and understandable shape. 1870Ruskin Lect. Art (1875) 73 There are two of the Puritans, whose work if I can succeed in making clearly understandable to you.., it is all I need care to do.
†2. Able to understand; capable of understanding.
1382Wyclif Ecclus. iii. 32 The wis herte and vnderstandable shalabstenen hymself from synnes. 1587Golding De Mornay vi. 93 Theodorus..hath termed them, the substantiall Vnderstanding, the Vnderstandable substance, and the Fountayne of Soules. 1654Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. 197 The daughters of those mothers..are forward and understandable of womens matters, sooner than other children.
Hence underˈstandableness, understandaˈbility.
1656tr. T. White's Peripat. Inst. 198 The Understandablenesse of a thing, or the quiddity, the whatnesse. 1934Webster, understandability. 1947[see ideal a. 1 b]. 1976Economist 31 July 4 Perhaps such a system would not be as statistically fair as some other suggestions but fairness would not be bought at the expense of understandability. |