flair

See also: Flair

English

Etymology

From Middle English flayre, from Old French flair (“scent, odour”), from flairier (“to reek, smell”), from Latin flāgrō, dissimilated variation of frāgrō (“emit a sweet smell”, verb). More at fragrant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛə/
• enPR: flâr, IPA^(key): /flɛɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophone: flare

Noun

flair (countable and uncountable, plural flairs)

1. A natural or innate talent or aptitude.

   Synonyms: gift, knack, talent

   to have a flair for art

   • 1999, Lucy Honig, The Truly Needy And Other Stories, University of Pittsburgh Press (→ISBN), page 73:

     The cafard. The cockroach. The French certainly had a flair for labeling their unhappiness. Long ago he had begun to visualize this nagging misery as the insect the word also named.

2. Distinctive style or elegance.

   Synonyms: elan, elegance, grace, panache, style

   to dress with flair

   • 1999, Mike Judge, Office Space, spoken by Joanna (Jennifer Aniston):

     You know what, Stan, if you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, like your pretty boy over there, Brian, why don't you just make the minimum 37 pieces of flair?

3. (obsolete) Smell; odor.
4. (obsolete) Olfaction; sense of smell.

Translations

natural or innate talent or aptitude

• Bulgarian: усет (bg) m (uset), способност (bg) f (sposobnost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 天分 (zh) (tiānfèn), 天资 (zh) (tiānzī)

• Finnish: lahja (fi), lahjakkuus (fi)
• French: don (fr) m, talent (fr) m, aptitude (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Begabung (de) f
• Portuguese: dom (pt) m, talento (pt) m, aptidão (pt) f
• Russian: спосо́бность (ru) f (sposóbnostʹ), скло́нность (ru) f (sklónnostʹ)
• Swedish: smak (sv)
• Tagalog: likas na talino

distinctive style or elegance

• Bulgarian: стил (bg) pl (stil)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 优雅 (zh) (yōuyǎ)

• French: style (fr) m, panache (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Flair (de) n
• Portuguese: estilo (pt) m
• Russian: своеобра́зие (ru) n (svojeobrázije)

Verb

flair (third-person singular simple present flairs, present participle flairing, simple past and past participle flaired)

1. (transitive) To add flair.
   • 1988, Poul Jorgensen, Poul Jorgensen's Book of Fly Tying: A Guide to Flies for All Game Fish

     Place your thumb on top of the shank and your bent index finger under the hair and pull the tying thread tight to flair it.

Anagrams

• filar, frail

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French

Etymology

From flairer, from Latin flagrare (“to blow”). Cognate to Portuguese cheiro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛʁ/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

flair m (plural flairs)

1. sense of smell
2. (by extension) intuition, sixth sense

Further reading

• “flair”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• rifla

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Old French

Noun

flair oblique singular, m (oblique plural flairs, nominative singular flairs, nominative plural flair)

1. smell; odor
2. sense of smell

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Scots

Alternative forms

• fluir

Etymology

From Old English flōr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fler/

Noun

flair (plural flairs)

1. floor
   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, p. 140:

     He skited it over the flair maybe if it was a jotter and it was you to go and get it.

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Westrobothnian

Etymology

From , from .

Adjective

1. More; comparative of and .
2. Many, several.