a. [f. UTTER v.1 + -ABLE.]
† 1. That may be disposed of by sale. Obs.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. 210. Some gainefull commoditie verie vtterable abroade.
1611. Cotgr., Marchandise Latine,… the best, or most vtterable commodities.
2. Capable of being uttered or expressed in words.
1648. Saltmarsh, Spark. Glory, 168. That is, the speakings or manifestations of the Spirit of God are not so utterable by the flesh or voice of man.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Eng. Dict., s.v. Effable, Whatever is utterable, or capable of being expressed.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, X. viii. When his woe became utterable, he wrung his hands.
1826. Q. Rev., XXXIII. 397. And then she touches in utterable words upon unutterable things.
1846. De Quincey, in ‘H. A. Page,’ Life (1877), I. xv. 326. All this wretchedness, not utterable to any human ear.
1893. Nat. Observer, 13 April, 534/1. Dividing all things utterable into things which are, and things which are not.
absol. 1873. Carlyle, Lett. (1913), I. 497. While he was discoursin’ the utterable concernin’ all sorts o’ high topics.
1896. Edin. Rev., Oct., 302. The vision of the utterable passes into the vision of the unutterable.
Hence Utterability, capability of being uttered; also pl., things that may be uttered.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, II. vi. He flashed … into a subject; gathered it up into organic utterability, with truly wonderful dispatch. Ibid. (1858), Fredk. Gt., IV. i. I. 39. He learned also to clothe his bits of notions, emotions, and garrulous utterabilities, in the French dialect.
