ability
(əˈbɪlɪtɪ)
Forms: 4 ablete, 5 abilite, habylite, 5–6 abletee, abilte, habilite, 6 habilitye, abilite, -ti, abylyte, abilyte, abylite, 6–7 habilitie, hability, abilitie, 7– ability.
[a. OFr. ableté:—L. habilitāt-em, n. of quality f. habilis: see able and -ty. The Fr. was in 4–5 refashioned after L., as habilité, habileté, and was followed by the Eng., though the initial h was probably never sounded, and after a long struggle on the part of scholars like More, Ascham, Sidney, Hooker, Bacon, Browne, etc., to preserve this written link with L., it finally disappeared before 1700.]
† 1. Suitableness, fitness, aptitude. Obs.
| c 1380 Wyclif Of Confessions Wks. 1880, 331 If his ablete shulde be proued..before he were accepted. 1430 Lydgate Chron. Troy ii. xvii, She entre maye the relegyon Of myghty Bachus for habylite. 1509 Fisher Eng. Wks. 290 Grete abletees of nature to noble dedes. 1570 Dee Math. Præ f. 18 Skillfull hability, also, for any occasion or purpose. 1622 M. Fotherby Atheomastix ii. i. §6. 181 The habilitie and capacitie of the matter. 1678 Marvell Def. John Howe Wks. 1875 IV. 187 A faculty conserved..includes no such hability and present promptitude in itself to action. |
2. The quality in an agent which makes an action possible; suitable or sufficient power (generally); faculty, capacity (to do or of doing something).
| c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. 1, I have perceived well by certeyne evidinces thine abilite to lerne sciences. c 1535 More Debell. Salem & Byzance Wks. 1557, 1000/1 Yf the onely power and hability to fain, wer a cause sufficient. 1551 Robinson More's Utopia 13 Though I be of muche lesse habilitie to do any thinge. 1570–87 Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1806) II. 340 We are not of habilitie..to indure sa greit and intollerabil panis. 1594–1600 Hooker Serm. iii. Wks. 1617, 729 Furnished with habilitie to annoy. 1605 Timme Quersitanus i. iv. 13 The which habilitie of taking forme is in the subject. 1636 Healey Cebes 156 A better Hability to have goodnesse infused into them. 1651 Life of Father Sarpi (1676) 19 The fame of his prudence and hability of government. 1711 F. Fuller Medic. Gymn. 11 The Body of Man..acquires by frequent Motion an Ability to last the longer. 1860 Tyndall Glaciers ii. §17. 323 The glacier of the Rhone..its ability to expand laterally is increased. |
b. The action itself, a thing within one's ability.
| 1602 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 2 Be thou assur'd, good Cassio, I will do All my abilities in thy behalfe. |
c. Power to do a thing of legal validity; capacity in law.
| 1528 Perkins Prof. Booke (1642) iii. §193. 86 Such persons are of ability in law to take liverie of seisin by force of feoffments of other men of abilities in law to make feoffments. 1649 Selden Laws of Eng. (1739) i. xxxvi. 55 The Canonists had in those days brought into custom other ages of ability in matters concerning Marriage. |
3. Bodily power; strength. (Still common in Scotland.)
| 1549 J. Olde tr. Erasmus on Ephes. II. 6, I being (as concerning myne owne habilitie) feble and weake. 1576 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 211 To lift a great stone easily Which before divers Lay persons could not stirre with all their strength and abilitie. 1607 Topsell Four-footed Beasts (1673) 137 Impudently begging and complaining of bodily weakness where is no want of ability. 1622 Wither Motto ‘Nec Habeo’ (1633) 520 I have not found ability so much To carry milstones. |
4. Pecuniary power; wealth, estate, means. Obs. exc. in a few phrases in which ‘to give’ is perhaps always mentally added.
| 1502 Arnold Chron. 84 Where as diuers periured fremen of smale abylite haue vsed and daily vse, to bye clothe and other marchaundises of England. 1526 Tindale Acts xi. 29 Every man accordinge to his habilite. 1580 Baret Alvearie To be of abilitie: to liue like a gentleman. What abilitie or liuing is he of? or what may he dispende a yeere? 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 378 Out of my leane and low ability Ile lend you something: my having is not much. 1665 Manley tr. Grotius's Low Countrey Warres 817 Upon most the fine exceeded their ability. 1729 Burkitt On New Test. Luke ii. 24 She was to bring a lamb of a year old for a burnt offering, in case she was a person of ability. 1766 Goldsmith Vic. W. xiv. A draught upon my neighbour was to me the same as money; for I was sufficiently convinced of his ability. |
5. Mental power or capacity; talent, cleverness.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 247 Though it be fit that Cassio haue his Place For, sure, he fills it vp with great Ability. 1604 T. Wright Passions of the Mind v. iii. 177 If a man haue not a good naturall habilitie, it is impossible by art to come to any perfection. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. i. 6 The brain is not so figur'd as is requisite for wit and hability. 1794 Sullivan View of Nat. II. 154 A late ingenious writer, who has evidently studied his subject with ability and precision. 1858 Buckle Civiliz. I. vii. 427 La Fayette was no doubt inferior to Condorcet in point of ability. 1878 M. L. Holbrook Hygiene of the Brain 3 The comparative ability of men is also an interesting subject. |
6. A special power of the mind, a faculty. (Usually in pl.)
| 1587 Golding De Mornay xv. 237 Euery abilitie thereof is in..the body, as much in one part as in another, as a whole soule in euery part; notwithstanding that euery seueral abilitie thereof seeme to be seuerally in some particuler member..as the sensitiue ability seemeth to rest in the head, the irefull in the heart, and [the] quickning in the liuer. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 179 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes. 1651 Hobbes Leviathan i. viii. 32 Such abilityes of the mind, as men praise. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & Fall I. xiii. 267 His abilities were useful rather than splendid. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 130/1 Their natural abilities, combined with excellent taste. |