[ad. med.L. venerābilitās: see next and -ITY. So It. venerabilità, Pg. -ilidade.]
1. The quality of being venerable.
1664. H. More, Antid. Idolatry, viii. 93. The Images have according to the excellency and venerability of their Prototypes, some Latria [etc.].
1805. R. P. Knight, Princ. Taste (ed. 2), II. ii. 161. This air of venerability (which belongs to the sublime, and not to the beautiful).
1826. Blackw. Mag., XIX. 388. [They] have lost the loveliness of youth, without having gained the venerability of age.
a. 1849. Poe, Wks. (1864), III. 405. Far be it from us … to dwell irreverently on matters which have venerability.
1904. Athenæum, 24 Dec., 886/1. Its conventions are … as much a part of its venerability as the trappings of the Lord Mayor’s Show.
2. Employed as a form of address to an ecclesiastic. rare–1.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain, v. I lived in the family of the Countess * * * *, at Cintra, when your venerability was her spiritual guide.
