meaning - Arguable ("susceptible to doubt") vs arguable ("susceptible to being supported")


According to dictionary.com, the adjective arguable has two definitions




  1. susceptible to debate, challenge, or doubt; questionable: Whether this is the best plan of action or not is arguable.

  2. susceptible to being supported by convincing or persuasive argument: Admirers agree that it is arguable he is the finest pianist of his generation.



I find that these two definitions are a bit contrary to each other. The first one emphasizes that something is doubtful, while the other means that something is probably convincing. How to distinguish between the two definitions from a sentence? Example from google news (including the adverb "arguably")





  • Carl Lewis, arguably the world's greatest-ever Olympian, is involved in another running battle – to become a politician.




  • Here, the appellants have an arguable case that the minister's decision exceeded his jurisdiction






Answer



As always in such cases, you must rely on the context. In both of your examples the word clearly has its positive sense: a reasonable case can be made that Carl Lewis was the greatest Olympian ever, and the appellants can make a reasonable case that the minister’s decision exceeded his jurisdiction. In neither sentence would the negative sense of arguable make much sense. When the negative sense is intended, the sentence (or those immediately around it) generally make very clear that the speaker or writer has doubts.


Note that the two senses aren’t really contradictory: even something that is arguable in the positive sense is open to some doubt, or it would be certain or demonstrated, not just arguable.


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