docility

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

docile (ˈdəʊsaɪl)

—*adj*
1.	easy to manage, control, or discipline; submissive
2.	rare ready to learn; easy to teach

[C15: from Latin docilis easily taught, from docēre to teach]

'docilely

—*adv*

docility

—n

docile (ˈdəʊsaɪl)

—*adj*
1.	easy to manage, control, or discipline; submissive
2.	rare ready to learn; easy to teach

[C15: from Latin docilis easily taught, from docēre to teach]

'docilely

—*adv*

docility

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

docile

late 15c., from It. or Fr. docile, from L. docilis "easily taught," from docere "teach" (see doctor). Sense of "obedient, submissive" first recorded 1774.

Example sentences

But they also tend to bully their boards into meek docility.

The unions' earlier militancy is the main reason for their relative docility

today.

She is tired of patience and gentleness and docility.

Calculation rather than docility explains this forbearance.

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Related Words

docile

sheepish

Matching Quote

"It is puzzling to me that otherwise sensitive people develop a real docility about the obvious necessity of eating, at least once a day, in order to stay alive. Often they lose their primal enjoyment of flavors and odors and textures to the point of complete unawareness. And if ever they question this progressive numbing-off, they shrug helplessly in the face of mediocrity everywhere. Bit by bit, hour by hour, they say, we are being forced to accept the not-so-good as the best, since there is little that is even good to compare it with."

-M.F.K. Fisher