different between receptive vs agreeable

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English receptive, receptyue (“capable of receiving something; acting as a receptacle”), borrowed from Medieval Latin receptivus (“capable of receiving something”), from Latin receptus (“retaken, having been retaken; received, having been received”) + -?vus (suffix added to the perfect passive participial stems of verbs, forming a deverbal adjective meaning ‘doing; related to doing’). Receptus is the perfect passive participle of recipi? (“to regain possession, take back; to recapture; to receive; to accept, undertake”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards; again’) + capi? (“to capture, catch, take; to take hold, take possession; to take on; to contain, hold; to occupy; to possess; to receive, take in; to comprehend, understand; to captivate, charm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh?p- (“to hold; to seize”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???s?pt?v/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???s?pt?v/
• Rhymes: -?pt?v
• Hyphenation: re?cept?ive

Adjective

receptive (comparative more receptive, superlative most receptive)

1. Capable of receiving something.

   Antonyms: irreceptive, nonreceptive, unreceptive

2. Ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas.

   Synonyms: acceptive, susceptive

   Antonym: unreceptive

3. (botany) Of a female flower or gynoecium: ready for reproduction; fertile.
4. (neurology, psychology) Of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression.

   Antonym: expressive

5. (zoology) Of a female animal (especially a mammal): prepared to mate; in heat, in oestrus.

   Synonym: oestrual

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

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.