Amiable means friendly and good-natured. An amiable man, amiable company, perfectly amiable.
It describes an easy pleasantness rather than warmth — amiable people are agreeable to be with and the word claims nothing deeper, which is why it can sound faintly like damning. Note the near-neighbour amicable, which describes relations rather than people: an amicable divorce, an amiable neighbour. The two come from the same Latin friend and have divided the work between them.
1adjectiveamiableFriendly and good-natured.
“Our amiable host chatted with every guest and made sure no one felt left out.”
amiable is a quality of friendliness.
Old French amiable comes from Latin amicabilis, friendly, from amicus, a friend, from amare, to love. Amicable is the same word borrowed again from Latin.
Latin
amīcābilis — friendly
Old French
amiable
Middle English
amyable
English, today
amiable
Built from
From Middle English amyable, from Old French amiable, from Latin amīcābilis (“friendly”), from Latin amīcus (“friend”), from amō (“love”). The meaning has been influenced by French amiable and Latin amābilis (“loveable”) (whence English aimable and amable). a doublet of amicable. Compare with amorous, amability.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA