urbane

English

Etymology

Existing since the sixteenth century in the sense of “appropriate to a city”: from French urbain or from Latin urbanus (from urbs, “city”).

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ɜːˈbeɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Adjective

urbane (comparative more urbane, superlative most urbane)

1. (of a man) Courteous, polite, refined, and suave.
   • 1949: George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p12

     He felt deeply drawn to him, and not solely because he was intrigued by the contrast between O’Brien’s urbane manner and his prize-fighter’s physique.

Related terms

• urban

Translations

courteous, polite, refined, suave, and sophisticated

• French: urbain (fr)
• German: weltgewandt (de), weltmännisch (de)
• Latin: urbanus (la)
• Russian: учтивый (ru) (učtívyj), вежливый (ru) (véžlivyj), обходительный (ru) (obxodítelʹnyj)

• Spanish: urbano (es), cortés (es)
• Swedish: belevad (sv), världsvan (sv), urban (sv), artig (sv)

References

• The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]

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German

Adjective

urbane

1. inflected form of urban

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Italian

Adjective

urbane f

1. Feminine plural form of urbano

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Latin

Noun

urbāne

1. vocative singular of urbānus