urbane

English

Etymology

From Middle French urbain (“urban, belonging to a city; also: polite, courteous, elegant, urbane”), from Latin urbānus (“belonging to a city”), with a sense of “having the manners of townspeople” in Classical Latin, from urbs (“city”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɜːˈbeɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Adjective

urbane (comparative more urbane, superlative most urbane)

1. (of a man) Courteous, polite, refined, and suave.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 1:

     The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!

   • 1949: George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p12
   • 2017 September 27, David Browne, "Hugh Hefner, 'Playboy' Founder, Dead at 91," Rolling Stone

     And with his trademark smoking jackets and pipes – and the silk pajamas he would often wear to work – Hefner became the embodiment of a sexually adventurous yet urbane image and lifestyle, a seeming role model for generations of men.

     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.

   Antonym: rustic

Related terms

• urban

Translations

courteous, polite, refined, suave, and sophisticated

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 彬彬有礼的

• Czech: jemný (cs) m, zdvořilý (cs) m, uhlazený m
• French: urbain (fr)
• German: weltgewandt, weltmännisch
• Greek: κόσμιος (el) (kósmios)

  Ancient: ἀστεῖος (asteîos)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: urbānus (la)
• Russian: учти́вый (ru) (učtívyj), ве́жливый (ru) (véžlivyj), обходи́тельный (ru) (obxodítelʹnyj)
• Spanish: urbano (es), cortés (es)
• Swedish: belevad (sv), världsvan (sv), urban (sv), artig (sv)

References

• The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]

Anagrams

• unbare, unbear

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German

Adjective

urbane

1. inflection of urban:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

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Italian

Adjective

1. (deprecated template usage) Feminine plural of adjective urbano.

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /urˈbaː.ne/, [ʊrˈbäːnɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /urˈba.ne/, [urˈbäːne]

Noun

(deprecated template usage) urbāne

1. vocative singular of urbānus

References

• “urbane”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “urbane”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

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Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

1. definite singular and plural of urban

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

1. definite singular and plural of urban