c. 1460. [see ESTIMABLE A. 1].
1614. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., xliii. 85/2. Were it not for the antiquity that makes it [Apelby] the more esteemable … it would be little better in account than a village.
1661. Feltham, Resolves, II. lv. 298. If we would be prevalent and esteemable, we ought … to preserve that interest, which never can, but by our own neglect, be lost.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, VI. note xxxiii. Homer does not paint him [Paris] and Helen … like Monsters … but allows their Characters esteemable Qualifications.
1720. Welton, Suffer. Son of God, II. xiv. 375. The Lowest Places under the Sacred Administration, are not less Illustrious and Esteemable In the Eye of God, than the Most Elevate and Supreme.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), II. 366. That the esteemable qualities alone, which are voluntary, are entitled to the appellation of virtues.
1761. Frances Sheridan, Sidney Bidulph, III. 185. A man … every way esteemable in his character.
1828. in Webster; and in mod. Dicts.
