a. (sb.) Also legeable, 5 legibylle. [ad. late L. legibilis (6th c.), f. legĕre to read: see -BLE.] That can be read.
a. Of writing: Plain enough to be read; easily made out or deciphered.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xlii. (Agatha), 283. And wrytine ves in þat tabil rycht fare lettire & legeable.
1483. Cath. Angl., 212/2. Legibylle, legibilis.
1560. Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., II. 8 b. Dresse the letters after thys maner … and they shalbe legible.
1620. Middleton, Chaste Maid, V. i. A fair, fast, legible hand.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 403. Strange Characters … so eaten out by time, that they were not legible.
1719. Swift, To Yng. Clergym., Wks. 1755, II. II. 11. Their heads held down … within an inch of the cushion, to read what is hardly legible.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, 218. Over each box should be a legible inscription.
b. Of compositions: Accessible to readers (nonce-use); also, easy to read, readable. rare.
1676. W. Hubbard, Happiness of People, Pref. For their sakes who … were denied the opportunity to be of the Auditory, I have condescended to make it Legible.
1820. Shelley, Lett., Prose Wks. 1880, IV. 178. I am translating in ottava rima the Hymn to Mercury…. My next effort will be, that it should be legible, a quality much to be desired in translations.
1840. Mill, Diss. & Disc. (1859), II. 121. French books are supposed to be sufficiently legible in England without translation.
c. transf. and fig.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. iii. § 2. 16. That excellent correspondence, which is betweene Gods revealed will and his secret will … is not legible to the Naturall Man.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653), To Rdr. I have … endeavoured to make my thoughts as legible as I can.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon. (O. H. S.), III. 112. His epitaph is legible in the larg volumes of his workes.
1703. Collier, Ess., II. 102. People’s opinions of themselves are commonly legible in their countenances.
1774. T. Jefferson, Autobiog., App., Wks. 1859, I. 141. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader.
1825. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Superannuated Man. My fellows in the office would sometimes rally me upon the trouble legible in my countenance.
d. as sb. pl. Matter for reading. rare–1.
1864. Realm, 10 Feb., 1. National education too much resembles the powerful winch of a literary air-pump, screwing up the demand for legibles, and lightening the atmospheric pressure of criticism on the supply.
Hence Legibleness, legibility.
1727. in Bailey, vol. II.
