| 释义 |
liveable, livable, a.|ˈlɪvəb(ə)l|
[f. live v. + -able.]
†1. Likely to live. Obs. rare—0.
1611in Cotgrave s.v. Viable.
†2. Conducive to (comfortable) living. Obs.
1664Pepys Diary 19 Feb., They are counted very rich people, worth at least 10 or 12,000l., and their country house all the yeare long, and all things liveable.
3. Of a house, a room, or locality: That may be lived in; suitable for living in.
1814Jane Austen Mansf. Park xxv, There will be work for five summers at least before the place is liveable. 1827Scott in Lockhart Life August, He [Scott] used to say that he did not know a more ‘liveable’ country [than the vale of Tweed]. 1830Campbell in Lady Morgan's Mem. (1862) II. 310 You will find me in a far more liveable part of London than I lived in before. 1849Ld. Carlisle Jrnl. 12 Feb. in Trevelyan Life Macaulay (1889) 479 His rooms at the top of the Albany are very liveable. 1879I. L. Bird Rocky Mountains 202 [South Park] looked to me quite lowland and livable. 1895Athenæum 10 Aug. 195/3 If men had learnt the art of living in Africa, that continent would prove quite as ‘livable’ as Brazil.
4. Of life: That can be lived; bearable, supportable.
1841Arnold in Stanley Life (1844) II. App. C. 436 But not the strongest Tory or Conservative values our Church or Law more than I do, or would find life less liveable without them. 1865Whewell in Life 541, I cannot yet see how life is livable. 1896Nation (N.Y.) LXII. 28/3 Who has for three years found life quite livable.
5. Of persons (also liveable with): That may be lived with; companionable, sociable.
1860Chamb. Jrnl. XIV. 305 Many men and women are of irreproachable character in all the great essentials, yet are not liveable people. 1888Athenæum 21 Apr. 501/3 Few will leave so pleasant an impression [as Matthew Arnold], few will seem so livable-with as he. 1896E. F. Benson Babe B.A. 7 They were both..very live-able-with.
Hence ˈliveableness, quality of being ‘liveable’ (in quot. 1895, capability of living, ‘viability’).
1860Chamb. Jrnl. XIV. 305 Everybody who has ever been a member of a household or a family, must have a ready conception of the quality—liveableness. 1882Stevenson Fam. Stud. 103 If the poet is to be of any help, he must testify to the liveableness of life. 1895Athenæum 27 July 129/1 The articles..are very fair of their kind. But they have absolutely no independent livableness. |