Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Words: amenable [AHED]

ADJECTIVE: 1. Responsive to advice, authority, or suggestion; willing. 2. Responsible to higher authority; accountable: amenable to the law. See synonyms at responsible. 3. Susceptible or open, as to testing or criticism: “The phenomenon of mind . . . is much more complex, though also more amenable to scientific investigation, than anyone suspected” (Michael D. Lemonick, Time July 17, 1995).
ETYMOLOGY: Probably alteration of Middle English menable, from Old French, from mener, to lead, from Latin minare, to drive, from minari, to threaten, from minae, threats.

(See: menace. The origins of this word interested me after I posited the word unamenable, which would basically mean unnonmenacing.)

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