versable

From Latin versabilis. Compare French versable. See versatile.

versable (comparative more versable, superlative most versable)

1. Capable of being turned; flexible, changeable, or inconsistent.
   • 1814, Hugh Blair ·, Sermons - Volume 2, page 230:

     Hence they are naturally led to relinquish the firmness of an upright character, for that supple and versable turn, which accommodates itself to the times, and assumes whatever appearance seems most convenient for interest.

   • 1977, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations, Staff Study of Computer Security in Federal Programs, page 215:

     The classic statement by Judge Holmes, " [t]he law does not define fraud; it needs no definition; it is as old as falsehood and as versable as human ingenuity.

   • 1997 April, Tomas A Withers, Frederick Kramer, Christopher L Varner, “The Tao of the Health Care Fraud Trial”, in United States Attorneys Bulletin, volume 45, number 2, page 19:

     The goal of the prosecution will be to cast before the judge and jury a vision of the case as one reflecting the versable ingenuity of the human mind in loosing the larceny residing in us.

   • 2020, Gabriela Stoicea, Fictions of Legibility: The Human Face and Body in Modern German Novels from Sophie von La Roche to Alfred Döblin, page 129:

     Different from his Scottish predecessor, the German novelist wanted to develop a "versable" hero/ine: socially typical, but also uniquely complex and receptive to change; the kind of hero/ine that would foster ambiguity and polysemy, not stymie them.

• versability

• beslaver, servable