numerable, a.
(ˈnjuːmərəb(ə)l)
[ad. L. numerābilis, f. numerāre to number. So It. numerabile, Sp. -able, Pg. -avel.]
1. Capable of being numbered.
| 1570 J. Dee Math. Pref. *j, The Glas of Creation, the Forme of Formes, the Exemplar Number of all thinges Numerable. 1629 J. Cole Of Death 107 That hee must dye, and that his dayes were numerable, nature taught him. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 58 So numerous in Islands as they are scarce numerable. 1710 Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. §122 Particular numerable things. 1829 Jas. Mill Hum. Mind (1869) II. 137 Aristotle defines Time as..Continuous Motion, considered as numerable and successive. 1865 Grote Plato I. i. 10 By this..he did not mean simply that all things were numerable. |
† 2. Numerous. Obs. rare—1.
| 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. i. 14 A certane toune copious in citizenis and verie numerable. |
Hence numeraˈbility, the quality of being numerable; numerableness, ‘capableness of being numbred’ (Bailey, vol. II, 1727).
| 1943 [see abstractable a.]. |