different between pleasant vs estimable

English

Etymology

Partly from Old French plaisant, partly from Middle English [Term?], present participle of English please. Related to Dutch plezant (“full of fun or pleasure”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pl?z?nt/
• Rhymes: -?z?nt

Adjective

pleasant (comparative pleasanter or more pleasant, superlative pleasantest or most pleasant)

1. Giving pleasure; pleasing in manner.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 133.1,^[1]

     Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

   • 1871, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter ,^[2]

     “O Oysters, come and walk with us!”

     The Walrus did beseech.

     “A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,

     Along the briny beach:

   • 1989, Hilary Mantel, Fludd, New York: Henry Holt, 2000, Chapter 2, p. 25,^[3]

     “ […] If you pray to St. Anne before twelve o’clock on a Wednesday, you’ll get a pleasant surprise before the end of the week.”

2. (obsolete) Facetious, joking.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act I, Scene 2,^[4]

     […] tell the pleasant prince this mock of his

     Hath turn’d his balls to gun-stones […]

   • 1600, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, London, Dedication,^[5]

     […] I present you here with a merrie conceited Comedie, called the Shoomakers Holyday, acted by my Lorde Admiralls Players this present Christmasse, before the Queenes most excellent Maiestie. For the mirth and pleasant matter, by her Highnesse graciously accepted; being indeede no way offensiue.

Synonyms

• agreeable
• nice

Antonyms

• disagreeable
• nasty
• unpleasant

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

pleasant (plural pleasants)

1. (obsolete) A wit; a humorist; a buffoon.
   • 1603, Philemon Holland (translator), The Philosophie, commonlie called the Morals written by the learned philosopher Plutarch of Chæronea, London, p. 1144,^[6]

     […] Galba was no better than one of the buffons or pleasants that professe to make folke merry and to laugh.

   • 1696, uncredited translator, The General History of the Quakers by Gerard Croese, London: John Dunton, Book 2, p. 96,^[7]

     Yea, in the Courts of Kings and Princes, their Fools, and Pleasants, which they kept to relax them from grief and pensiveness, could not show themselves more dexterously ridiculous, than by representing the Quakers, or aping the motions of their mouth, voice, gesture, and countenance:

Anagrams

• planates, platanes

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French estimable.

Adjective

estimable (comparative more estimable, superlative most estimable)

1. Worthy of esteem; admirable.
   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, ch. 22:

     Mr. March told . . . how devoted Brooke had been, and how he was altogether a most estimable and upright young man.

2. (archaic) Valuable.
   • 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act 1, scene 3:

     A pound of man's flesh taken from a man

     Is not so estimable, profitable neither,

     As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.

3. Capable of being estimated; estimatable.
   • 1928, Louis Kahlenberg and Norbert Barwasser, "On the time of Absorption and Excretion of Boric Acid in Man," Journal of Biological Chemistry, volume 79, iss. 2, page 406:

     After this time boric acid is always present in estimable amounts.

Further reading

• estimable at OneLook Dictionary Search

French

Etymology

From estimer +? -able

Adjective

estimable (plural estimables)

1. estimable, creditable
2. esteemed

Further reading

• “estimable” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Spanish

Adjective

estimable (plural estimables)

1. esteemed, admirable
2. estimable (capable of being estimated)

Related terms

• estimado