elegance
See also: élégance
English
Etymology
From Middle French élégance, from Latin ēlegantia (“exquisiteness; refinement, elegance”).
Pronunciation
Noun
elegance (usually uncountable, plural elegances)
- Grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.
- The bride was elegance personified.
- Restraint and grace of style.
- The simple dress had a quiet elegance.
- The beauty of an idea characterized by minimalism and intuitiveness while preserving exactness and precision.
- The proof of the theorem had a pleasing elegance.
- (countable, dated) A refinement or luxury.
- 1852, Various, Young Americans Abroad[1]:
- As to the comforts and elegances of life, we have enough of them for our good.
- 1881, Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1[2]:
- At Rome, when Sallust was the fashionable writer, short sentences, uncommon words, and an obscure brevity, were affected as so many elegances.
- 1909, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 10, in The Governors[3]:
- Phineas Duge […] was, for a man of affairs and an American, singularly fond of the small elegances of life. Although he sat alone at dinner, the table was heaped with choice flowers and carefully selected hothouse fruit.
Related terms
Translations
grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners
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restraint and grace in style
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beauty of an idea
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refinement or luxury
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Czech
Noun
elegance f
Related terms
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English dated terms
- English terms with quotations
- en:Appearance
- Czech lemmas
- Czech nouns
- Czech feminine nouns