[f. prec. + -NESS.]
1. The quality of being agreeable, or of giving pleasure; pleasingness, pleasantness.
1611. Cotgr., Agreeableté, agreeablenesse, acceptablenesse.
1610–31. Donne, Selections (1840), 160. Loveliness of person, agreeableness of conversation.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual. Beauty … is made up of Symmetry of parts, and agreeablenesse of colours.
1709. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., lxiv. 106. Leave me my … agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 159. The agreeableness of the climate.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Ess., 213. Virtue and agreeableness are, I fear, too often separated.
c. 1815. Miss Austen, Northang. Ab. (1833), I. x. 58. We have entered into a contract of mutual agreeableness.
1870. Hawthorne, Eng. Note-Bks. (1879), I. 128. You might enjoy its agreeableness without suspecting it.
† 2. The quality of being conformable to, or consistent with; conformity, consistency. Obs.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., G ij. There appeareth a greate agreablenes, between like flattes, and square nombers.
1667. H. More, Div. Dial., V. xli. (1713), 523. Sing no Tragical strain in agreeableness to the last Thunder.
1690. J. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), I. 166. Some Likeness or Agreeableness between the Faculty and the Good to be enjoy’d.
1710. Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, ii. 43. The strength of every Precedent lyeth in its agreeableness with the Law.
a. 1797. Burke, Ess. Drama, Wks. X. 159. The incompatibility or agreeableness of incidents … with the probable in fact, but with propriety in design.
