different between agreeable vs lively

English

Etymology

From Middle English agreable, from Old French agreable; displaced native Old English cweme (“pleasing, agreeable”). Equivalent to agree +? -able.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /????i??bl/

Adjective

agreeable (comparative more agreeable, superlative most agreeable)

1. pleasant to the senses or the mind

   • the train of agreeable reveries.

2. (dated) Willing; ready to agree or consent.
   • 1529, Hugh Latimer, sermon in Cambridge

     These Frenchmen give unto the said captain of Calais a great sum of money, so that he will be but content and agreeable that they may enter into the said town.

3. Agreeing or suitable; followed by to, or rarely by with.

   Synonyms: conformable, correspondent, concordant
4. In pursuance, conformity, or accordance; used adverbially

Synonyms

• (pleasing, pleasant): See Thesaurus:pleasant
• (willing): See Thesaurus:acquiescent
• (conforming): See Thesaurus:agreeable

Translations

Noun

agreeable (plural agreeables)

1. Something pleasing; anything that is agreeable.
   • 1855, Blackwood's magazine (volume 77, page 331)

     The disagreeables of travelling are necessary evils, to be encountered for the sake of the agreeables of resting and looking round you.

Further reading

• agreeable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• agreeable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?la?vli/

Etymology 1

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English l?fl?? (“living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital”), equivalent to life +? -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (“of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like”). Doublet of lifely.

Alternative forms

• lifely (obsolete)

Adjective

lively (comparative livelier, superlative liveliest)

1. Full of life; energetic.
2. Bright, glowing, vivid; strong, vigorous.
   • 1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light

     The colours of the prism are manifestly more full, intense, and lively that those of natural bodies.

   • 1688, Robert South, Sacramental Preparation: Set forth in a Sermon on Matthew 5, 12.

     His faith must be not only living, but lively too.

3. (archaic) Endowed with or manifesting life; living.
   • c. 1600, Philemon Holland

     chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leaves

4. (archaic) Representing life; lifelike.
   • 1632, Philip Massinger and Nathan Field, The Fatal Dowry

     I spied the lively picture of my father.

5. (archaic) Airy; animated; spirited.
6. (of beer) Fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "lively" is often applied: person, character, lady, woman, man, audience, personality, art, guide, activity, game, lesson, introduction, discussion, debate, writing, image, town, city, village, etc.

Synonyms

• (full of life): frisky, peppy, zestful; see also Thesaurus:active
• (vivid, strong, vigorous): intense
• (endowed with or manifesting life): extant, live, vital; see also Thesaurus:alive
• (representing life): lifey, limned, naturalistic,
• (fizzy, foamy): frothy, spumescent

Derived terms

• liveliness
• look lively

Translations

Noun

lively (plural livelies)

1. (nautical, informal) Term of address.
   • 1846, Herman Melville, Typee

     Speak the word, my livelies, and I'll pilot her in.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English l?fl??e, equivalent to life +? -ly.

Adverb

lively (comparative more lively, superlative most lively)

1. Vigorously.
2. Vibrantly, vividly.
3. (obsolete) In a lifelike manner.
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.220-1:

     the Painter Protogenes […] having perfected the image of a wearie and panting dog, […] but being unable, as he desired, lively to represent the drivel or slaver of his mouth, vexed against his owne worke, took his spunge, and moist as it was with divers colours, threw it at the picture  […].

Translations

Anagrams

• evilly, vilely