1

the word "approvableness" means - The state or quality of being approvable

When is approvableness used as a state of being approvable? And when is approvableness used as a quality of being appprovable?

Improve this question
5
  • Attractiveness is indeed the quality of being attractive: I am not sure what "a quaility of being attractive" would be. Please clarify
    – Tim Lymington
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 21:18
  • Not sure either, the definition of a qaulity of being was taken from the here en.wiktionary.org/wiki/attractiveness#English
    – Yet A-beyene
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 21:30
  • @TimLymington I started writing up an answer but I noticed that sometimes "quality of" also means "state of". Personally I would reserve the word "quality of" for specific attributes. Words like "attractive" or "nice" or "beautiful" don't really mean anything. "attractive because he had good posture or a warm smile" I think are actual qualities.
    – Tom22
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 21:36
  • @TimLymington but I think I'm splitting hairs semantically
    – Tom22
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 21:39
  • @Tom: I think there is a fair question somewhere here, hinging on the difference between state and quality; but this is not it. If OP doesn't edit, you could have a go yourself, perhaps: if nobody does, this will certainly be closed.
    – Tim Lymington
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 21:41

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Approvableness shows up in dictionaries; but outside of dictionaries Google Books shows me only five uses since 1900, and three of those are from a single book on Doing Phenomenology, whose author's native language appears to have been German.

I recommend you not use this word at all. The ordinary noun derivative for adjectives of the form VERBable is VERBability, so a better choice would be approvability. It's not exactly common, but Google Books lists several dozen uses in the current century.

As for your state vs quality question: this is pretty standard dictionary language for surrounding the meaning of a term when you can't quite pin down an actual 'meaning'. State and quality aren't distinct entities: they're two metaphors—where an entity stands and what it is like—for describing the endstate of recategorizing a verb as a noun.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .