desirability (dezirabiliti)

[ sirable; desirablene . desirable (dē-zir'a-bl), a. [ E. desi der able ) = Sp. desidera ble (cf. Sp. deseable (= Pg. desejavel ), Oh deare, sweete, and desire able child, how shall I part with all this goodne and virtue? Evelyn , Diary, March 10, 1685. Here are also strong Currents, sometimes setting one way, sometimes another; which... it is hard to describe with that Accuracy which is desirable . Dampier , Voyages, II. iii. 2. No school can avoid taking for the ultimate moral aim a desirable state of feeling, called by whatever name gratification, enjoyment, happine . H. Spencer , Data of Ethics, § 15. desirablene (dē-zir'a-bl-nes), n. The quality of being desirable; desirability. The human character. is so constituted that a man's desire for things he does not po e is not in proportion to their desirablene , but in proportion to the ease with which they seem attainable. W. H. Mallock , Social Equality, p. 205. The desirablene of a pleasure must always expre its relation to some one else than the person desiring the enjoyment of the pleasure. T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, § 369. desirably (dē-zir'a-bli), adv . In a desirable manner.