elegant - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Late Middle English elegaunt, from Middle French elegant, ultimately from Latin ēlegāns.
elegant (comparative more elegant, superlative most elegant)
- Characterised by or exhibiting elegance.
2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better[1], Plum, →ISBN, page 192:
You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.
- Characterised by minimalism and intuitiveness while preserving exactness and precision.
an elegant solution
- (Ireland, colloquial, archaic) Fine; doing well.
1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
'An' how are ye, Jemmie—how's every inch iv you?' enquired Moggy of the boy, when his agitation was a little blown over.
'I'm elegant, thank ye,' he answered; 'an' what's the matther wid ye all? I cum through the kitchen, and seen no one.'
exhibiting elegance
- Arabic: ظَرِيف (ẓarīf), أَنِيق (ʔanīq)
- Armenian: էլեգանտ (ēlegant), նրբագեղ (hy) (nrbageġ)
- Assamese: শুৱলা (xuola)
- Bulgarian: елегантен (bg) (eleganten), изискан (bg) (iziskan)
- Catalan: elegant (ca)
- Chinese:
- Czech: elegantní
- Danish: elegant (da)
- Dutch: elegant (nl), sierlijk (nl), gracieus (nl)
- Esperanto: eleganta
- Finnish: elegantti (fi), aistikas (fi), hienostunut (fi)
- French: élégant (fr)
- Galician: elegante (gl)
- Georgian: please add this translation if you can
- German: elegant (de), schick (de)
- Greek: κομψός (el) (kompsós)
- Ancient: κομψός (kompsós)
- Hebrew: אֶלֶגַנְטִי (he) (elegánti), מְהֻדָּר (he) (mehudár)
- Hungarian: elegáns (hu), előkelő (hu)
- Irish: galánta
- Italian: elegante (it)
- Japanese: 優雅な (ja) (ゆうがな, yūga-na), 立派な (ja) (りっぱな, rippa-na), 高雅な (ja) (こうがな, kōga-na), 典雅な (ja) (てんがな, tenga-na)
- Kabuverdianu: janóta
- Khmer: ឆើតឆាយ (chaətchaay)
- Korean: 우아한 (uahan)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: شۆخ (şox)
- Latin: facētus, ēlegans, lautus, venustus
- Macedonian: елега́нтен (elegánten), пре́финет (préfinet), о́тмен (ótmen)
- Maori: huatau, purotu, tōrire
- Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: elegancki (pl)
- Portuguese: elegante (pt)
- Russian: элега́нтный (ru) (elegántnyj), шика́рный (ru) (šikárnyj), изя́щный (ru) (izjáščnyj)
- Sanskrit: रसिक (sa) (rasika)
- Serbo-Croatian: elegantan (sh)
- Spanish: elegante (es), chic (es), paltón (es) m (Chile), picudo (Mexico), glaxo (Colombia)
- Swedish: elegant (sv)
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: zarif (tr), kibar (tr), şık (tr)
- Urdu: شائسته
- Vietnamese: thanh lịch (vi), tao nhã (vi)
elegant (plural elegants)
- An elegant parrot.
1895, The Avicultural Magazine, Volume 1, The Avicultural Society for the Study of Foreign and British Birds, page 22:
But if the Aviarist be ambitious to keep the lovely, but destructive, members of the Parrot family, he must be content with grass alone, because Parrakeets (except the weak-billed Turquoisines and Elegants) would destroy the shrubs and trees in a day.
Borrowed from Latin ēlegantem.
- Rhymes: -ant
elegant m or f (masculine and feminine plural elegants)
- “elegant” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “elegant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
- “elegant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “elegant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Borrowed from French élégant, from Latin ēlegāns.
elegant
- “elegant” in Den Danske Ordbog
Borrowed from Middle French elegant.
elegant (comparative eleganter, superlative elegantst)
Declension of elegant | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | elegant | |||
inflected | elegante | |||
comparative | eleganter | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | elegant | eleganter | het elegantst het elegantste | |
indefinite | m./f. sing. | elegante | elegantere | elegantste |
n. sing. | elegant | eleganter | elegantste | |
plural | elegante | elegantere | elegantste | |
definite | elegante | elegantere | elegantste | |
partitive | elegants | eleganters | — |
Borrowed from Middle French elegant.
elegant (strong nominative masculine singular eleganter, comparative eleganter, superlative am elegantesten)
Positive forms of elegant
Comparative forms of elegant
Superlative forms of elegant
ēlēgant
elegant m (feminine singular elegante, masculine plural elegants, feminine plural elegantes)
From Latin elegans, via French élégant.
elegant (neuter singular elegant, definite singular and plural elegante)
- “elegant” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
From Latin elegans, via French élégant.
elegant (neuter singular elegant, definite singular and plural elegante)
- “elegant” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Borrowed from French élégant, from Latin ēlegāns.
elegant m pers (female equivalent elegantka, diminutive elegancik)
- elegant in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- elegant in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Borrowed from French élégant, from Latin elegans.
elegant m or n (feminine singular elegantă, masculine plural eleganți, feminine and neuter plural elegante)
From Latin elegans, via French élégant.
elegant (comparative elegantare, superlative elegantast)
- elegans c (noun)
elegant c
- an elegance (person who is (doing something) elegant)
Often a bit tongue-in-cheek.