elegancen.
/ˈɛlᵻɡ(ə)ns/, U.S. /ˈɛləɡəns/ 1.
a. With reference to language or literary style: harmonious simplicity and tasteful appropriateness in the choice and arrangement of words; freedom from awkwardness, coarseness, or clumsiness. Cf. elegant adj. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > elegance > [noun]
facunda1340
rhetoricc1405
elegancy?a1475
elegance?1504
facundity1530
grace1530
festivity1542
roundness1557
concinnity1577
style1589
comptness1611
politeness1627
concinneness1655
speakingness1851
style1851
daintiness1878
yugen1921
simplex munditiis1933
?1504 W. Atkinson tr. Thomas à Kempis Ful Treat. Imytacyon Cryste (Pynson) i. i. sig. Cii Curious & sotell reasons garnysshed wyth elygance makythe not a man holy.
?1518 A. Barclay in tr. D. Mancinus Myrrour Good Maners sig. Av In elygaunce of meter, and speche.
1589 T. Nashe To Students in R. Greene Menaphon Epist. sig. **3v Sir Thomas Eliots elegance did seuer it selfe from all equalls.
1601 J. Marston et al. Iacke Drums Entertainm. iv. sig. G4 I..Detest thy purest elegance of speech.
1685 J. Dryden Sylvæ Pref. sig. a6v The Elegance of his Words, and the numerousness of his Verse.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 157. ⁋11 Nothing to say of elegance..equal to my wishes.
1791 P. Russell Treat. Plague Pref. It might justly be deemed arrogance..to pretend to exemplary pureness, or elegance in writing.
1826 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. (ed. 2) II. viii. 217 Elegance, by which I always mean precision and correctness.
1882 B. A. Hinsdale Garfield & Educ. ii. 402 The elegance of her translations.
1948 Rotarian Dec. 30/2 June cheats on her term papers, lifting whole paragraphs from books, the elegance of which far outstrips her own command of writing.
1962 Jrnl. Hist. Ideas 23 20 His erudition both wide and deep, his confident stylistic elegance.
2011 Daily Tel. 21 Oct. 37/5 The wry elegance of his prose.
b. As a count noun: an elegant expression. Cf. elegancy n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > pleasing fitness > [noun] > seemliness or propriety
seemlihead?a1366
honestya1398
comeliness1440
seemlityc1440
semblessea1500
elegance1540
seemliness1548
decency1584
handsomeness1595
civility1612
pickle1706
bienseancea1797
formality1834
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > elegance > [noun] > elegant thing
elegancy1534
elegance1540
gentleness1616
1540 J. Palsgrave in tr. G. Gnapheus Comedye Acolastus iv. sig. Uiii The phrases, Adages, sentences notable, metaphores, elegances, or the eloquent wordes vsed of the auctour in these thre sceanes.
1606 T. Taylor in W. Perkins Godlie & Learned Expos. Epist. Jude (new ed.) To Rdr. sig. A5 Either his owne elegances and proprieties..we neglected, or something besides his owne is iniuriously inserted.
1662 G. Torriano 2nd Alphabet Proverbial Phrases 49/1 The Academists of la Crusca have fill'd their Dictionary with elegances, and by way of quipping, it is to speak pedantically, and with affectation.
1781 S. Johnson Pope in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets VII. 304 He has left in his Homer a treasure of poetical elegances to posterity.
1824 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. I. xiv. 244 What your father and grandfather used as an elegance in conversation, is now abandoned to the populace.
1968 J. M. Ziman Public Knowl. vi. 118 Vivid phrases and literary elegances are frowned upon.
2.
a. With reference to appearance, movement, etc.: grace or simple beauty, combined with good taste; freedom from awkwardness, coarseness, or clumsiness; refined tastefulness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > elegance > [noun]
elegancy?a1475
elegance1545
featness1576
garb1591
vagisness1604
fashionableness1640
gentility1753
featliness1843
concinnity1855
1545 E. Walshe Office & Duety Fighting for Countrey sig. Avii Men wyll haue sometyme consyderacion & respecte to theyr amplitude, elegance, plentifulnes & riches.
1595 R. S. tr. Amorous Contention Phillis & Flora in G. Chapman Ouids Banquet of Sence sig. Giiiv Rise wretch from this grose exstasie, A Clarke sole Epicure thinke I: No elegance can beautifie A shapelesse lumpe of gluttony.
1621 T. Granger Familiar Expos. Eccles. ix. 8. 231 Silkes, and fine linnen for elegance, and ornament.
1690 W. Temple Ess. Gardens of Epicurus 15 in Miscellanea: 2nd Pt. Two things..that contribute much to the Beauty and Elegance of our Gardens..are the Gravel of our Walks, and the fineness and almost perpetual Greenness of our Turf.
1745 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) II. 358 She has blended in her composition..the excellences of a good economist with the elegance of a fine lady.
1797 R. Beilby & T. Bewick Hist. Brit. Birds I. Introd. p. vii The..elegance discoverable in their outward appearance.
1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. ii, in Poems 75 With untutor'd Elegance she dress'd.
1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing iv. 224 Elegance, I take to signify that intricate combination and contrast of lines in the form of a figure which constitute an essential part of beauty.
1880 ‘Mrs. Forrester’ Roy & Viola I. 1 Nowhere else in the world could you see such a display of luxury and elegance.
1900 H. L. Keeler Our Native Trees 202 A flowering tree of rare elegance and beauty.
1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day i. 16 It is an unpretentious building, but has elegance and symmetry and a certain romantic charm.
1976 Listener 20 May 638/3 We saw Lucero Tena dancing with spirit and elegance among polished brown 'cellos and black-and-white evening dress.
2005 M. S. Lovell Bess of Hardwick (2007) iv. 62 In all the portraits we have of her she dresses with elegance and restraint.
b. As a count noun: something that is elegant; an elegant gesture, style of behaviour, etc. Cf. elegancy n. 2b.
ΚΠ
1746 J. Hervey Medit. among Tombs 58 Her Form was Symmetry itself: Every Elegance breathed in her Air; and all the Graces waited on her Motions.
1837 J. H. Newman Parochial Serm. (ed. 3) I. xxvi. 396 The measure of this world's elegances.
1862 R. W. Emerson Thoreau in Atlantic Monthly Aug. 248/1 He had many elegances of his own, whilst he scoffed at conventional elegance.
1936 J. N. L. Myers in R. G. Collingwood & J. N. L. Myers Rom. Brit. & Eng. Settlements iii. xii. 199 The decencies and elegances of civilized life.
2005 J. Bhattacharyya Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice vi. 71 Sometimes we come across in the novel a nostalgic suggestion of the elegances of a leisured age.
3. † a. Correctness of taste; good taste. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > aesthetic quality or good taste > [noun]
elegance1655
goût1699
taste1739
tastefulness1843
tastiness1882
yugen1921
1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. iii. 98 Ælian argued the elegance of the person, in choosing such things as were fair.
b. With reference to social conduct: refined propriety; pleasing decorousness; graciousness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > good behaviour > [noun] > seemly behaviour or propriety
seemlihead?a1366
honestya1398
comeliness1440
seemlihoodc1440
seemlityc1440
semblessea1500
seemliness1548
decentness1561
decorum?1571
handsomeness1595
civility1612
decency1682
exactness1683
elegance1686
propriety1753
thing1791
bienseancea1797
convenances1831
decorousness1834
the becoming1842
correctnessa1859
good (also bad) form1868
properness1873
correctitude1893
the done thing1917
1686 N. Tate et al. tr. Heliodorus Æthiopian Hist. vii. 44 She is famous for hospitality to strangers, and, of all Nations, an admirer of the Greeks, for the elegance of their manners.
1754 P. Delany Observ. Ld. Orrery's Remarks Swift xiv. 179 Swift treated his friends in a very different manner: but yet most certainly, not with less elegance, politeness, or generosity.
1755 S. Johnson Let. 6 May (1992) I. 106 Your own Elegance of manners and punctuality of complaisance.
1816 J. Austen Emma I. xvi. 287 With all the gentleness of his address, true elegance was sometimes wanting. View more context for this quotation
1864 Ladies' Repository June 325/2 The elegance with which she presided at the breakfast-table, dispensing the aromatic beverage with a singular remembrance of the taste of every guest.
1925 M. Minnigerode Lives & Times iii. 100 She shared with Mrs. John Adams, and not many others, a reputation for unusual brilliancy of mind and elegance of manners.
2012 Indian Express (Nexis) 1 Apr. An entire populace did what perhaps most MBAs would refuse to do. The elegance with which they did it was even more extraordinary. And they refused to acknowledge it was anything noble.
4.
a. Pleasing or ingenious simplicity of a scientific or mathematical theorem, process, invention, etc., or (formerly) †of a prescription.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > branch of knowledge > systematic knowledge, science > [noun] > scientific procedure > ingenious simplicity of
elegance1756
1671 G. Thomson Μισοχυμὶας Ἔλεγχου 33 Physicians ought to make their own Medicines, for thereby they shall prepare them with a satisfactory Elegance.
1756 P. Browne Civil & Nat. Hist. Jamaica ii. ii. 285 Nor do I doubt but they might be used, with as much elegance, in emulsions.
1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. xx. 240 The elegance and extent of his investigations of the most abstruse properties of the conic sections left but little to be added to them by more modern geometricians.
1965 Encounter Aug. 57/1 The elegance of the solution and the economy of the thought and work that went into it are qualities scientists give some weight to.
2006 M. Ronan Symmetry & Monster vii. 86 Elegance and clarity are markers of excellent mathematics.
b. Law. Consistency and simplicity in a system of law, esp. Roman law.
ΚΠ
1861 H. S. Maine Anc. Law iv. 79 To their sense of simplicity and harmony..significantly termed ‘elegance’..the Roman jurisconsults..surrendered themselves.
1871 J. Bryce Academical Study of Civil Law 29 The conspicuous merit of the Roman lawyer was..the skill with which he manipulated the rules..without any loss of consistency or ‘elegance’.
1907 Green Bag Sept. 508/1 They dislike what is arbitrary or artificial, taking for their aim what they call elegance (elegantia juris), the plastic skill, so to speak, in developing a principle which gives to law the character of art, preserving harmony, avoiding exceptions and irregularities.
1988 Columbia Law Rev. 88 1016 Ideal systems are beautiful; elegance, an aesthetic criterion, affects the shape the law takes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?1504