[f. CAPABLE + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being capable (in various senses); capability.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xv. (1617), 261. So it [the mind] should euermore haue brought the ability and capablenesse of it into act.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits (1616), 27. Whereunto these ventricles serue, and their large or narrow capablenesse for the reasonable soule, all shall bee told by vs.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 289. Where there is no capablenesse of faith, there ought to bee no baptisme.
1680. R. Mansel, Narr. Popish Plot, 7. She there examined his capableness for business.
1731. Bailey, Appeasableness, capableness of being pacified.
