elegance

See also: élégance

English

Etymology

From Middle French élégance, from Latin ēlegantia (“exquisiteness; refinement, elegance”).

Noun

elegance (usually uncountable, plural elegances)

  1. Grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.
    The bride was elegance personified.
  2. Restraint and grace of style.
    The simple dress had a quiet elegance.
  3. The beauty of an idea characterized by minimalism and intuitiveness while preserving exactness and precision.
    The proof of the theorem had a pleasing elegance.
  4. (countable, dated) A refinement or luxury.
    • 1852, Various, Young Americans Abroad‎:
      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:
      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:
      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.

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Czech

Noun

elegance f

  1. elegance
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.