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

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

Translations

References
  • The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]

Anagrams

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

Italian

Adjective

urbane

  1. Feminine plural of adjective urbano.

Latin

Pronunciation
  • (Classical) IPA(key): /urˈbaː.ne/, [ʊrˈbaː.nɛ]

Noun

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

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

urbane

  1. definite singular and plural of urban

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

urbane

  1. definite singular and plural of urban
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