mutable, a. and n.
(ˈmjuːtəb(ə)l)
Also 5 muitable.
[ad. L. mūtābil-is changeable, f. mūtāre to change: see -able.]
A. adj.
1. a. Liable or subject to change or alteration.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iv. pr. vi. 107 (Camb. MS.) The whiche destynal causes, whan they passen owt fro the bygynnynges of the vnmoeuable puruyaunce, it mot nedes be þat they ne be nat Mutable. 1456 in Coventry Corpus Chr. Plays 117 With-oute whom [i.e. Fortune], sithen non playnly can prosper, That in this muitable lyfe ar nowe procedyng, I am come thurgh love. 1515 Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C vj b/2, Protheus..Mutable of figure oft times in one houre. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. xv. §1 Although no lawes but positiue be mutable, yet all are not mutable which be positiue. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. vii. 306 There is no East and West in Nature; nor are those absolute and invariable, but respective and mutable points. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 39 ¶15 The Use of Clothes continues, though the Fashion of them has been mutable. 1783 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds ii. i. 347 Mutable Flycatcher. Muscicapa mutata. 1824 S. E. Ferrier Inher. xc, Her mutable countenance had now all the fixedness and paleness of marble. 1902 A. Lang Hist. Scot. II. xvi. 428 Like all other laws those of the Kirk proved to be mutable. |
| absol. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Montaigne Wks. (Bohn) I. 352 Let a man learn to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting. |
b. Gram. Subject to mutation.
| 1707 E. Lhuyd Archæol. Brit. 300 The Consonants are divided into Mutable and Immutable. The Mutable are such as by the Addition of an h, or else by a full point (.) above them, either alter or lose their Pronunciation, as b, c [etc.]. 1837 G. Phillips Syriac Gram. 28 Nouns of many syllables, the last of which is mutable, are exemplified in the following Table. 1843 W. Neilson Irish Gram. 5 The sounds of the mutable consonants, when aspirated, differ materially from those which they receive, when simple. |
2. Inconstant in mind, will, or disposition; fickle; variable. Now somewhat rare.
| 1412–20 Lydg. Troy Bk. i. v. (1513) C j b, Theyr hertes be so freell and vnstable Namely in youthe so meuynge and mutable That [etc.]. a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 191 b, Least the sight..might..also wyn the hartes of the mutable commonaltie. Ibid., Rich. III 48 The mutable mynde of quene Elyzabeth. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis iv. vii. 260 They call Fortune whatsoever is doubtfull..and for this cause they feigne her a mutable and blind Goddesse. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc iii. 85 Paris with her servile sons, A headstrong, mutable, ferocious race, Bow'd to the invader's yoke. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. cvi, A child Most mutable in wishes but in mind A wit as various. 1860 Motley Netherl. (1868) I. vii. 468 Ever variable and mutable as woman, Elizabeth was perplexing and baffling to her counsellors. 1871 Darwin Desc. Man II. xix. 339 The most fertile imagination and the most mutable caprice have created the fashions of painting, as well as those of garments. |
3. Biol. Capable of undergoing mutation; liable to undergo mutation frequently.
| 1905 F. E. Clements Res. Methods in Ecol. 319 Mutable, able to produce mutants. 1908 J. A. Thomson Heredity iii. 91 There he [sc. de Vries] found his long-looked-for mutable plant, an evening primrose (Œnothera lamarckiana). 1928 Genetics XIII. 360 To designate a character showing frequent heritable changes, the terms ‘mutable’, or ‘frequently mutating’ will be used. 1941 Nature 22 Mar. 356/2 We have carried out an experiment with a mutable gene which produces coloured spots on the petals and stems of Portulaca grandiflora. 1972 Molecular & General Genetics CXIV. 144 (heading) The genetics of a new mutable allele at the white locus in Drosophila melanogaster. |
B. n.
1. pl. Things capable of change. Obs. rare—1.
| 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 150 Having its inherance in movables or mutables. |
2. A mutable consonant (see A. 1 b).
| 1821 O'Reilly Irish Dict. Introd. 2 The division of the consonants into mutables and immutables. 1843 W. Neilson Irish Gram 4 [Letters] capable of aspiration, or mutables. |
Hence ˈmutably adv., in a mutable manner; so as to be capable of change; also, with constant change or variation; ˈmutableness (now rare), mutability.
| 1481 Botoner Tulle Old Age (Caxton) b 3, The mutablenes & euyl dysposicion of men hit is so grete in oure dayes. 1582 Batman Barth. De P.R. v. vi. 39 If y⊇ eie be to much mouing it betokeneth..mutablenesse of affection. 1646 E. F. Marrow Mod. Divin. (ed. 2) 13 Though he and his will were both good, yet were they mutably good. a 1677 Manton Serm. Ps. cxix verse 123 (1681) 832 Every man is, or may be a liar, because of the mutableness of his Nature. 1703 J. Barrett Analecta 32 How little valuable are all Worldly things, that are so unstable!..their mutableness would take off so much as would leave them of little Value. 1755 in Johnson. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 509. Rather greasy; often in some positions mutably resplendent. |