tastefully fine or luxurious in dress, style, design, etc.: elegant furnishings.
2.
gracefully refined and dignified, as in tastes, habits, or literary style: an elegant young gentleman; an elegant prosodist.
3.
graceful in form or movement: an elegant wave of the hand.
4.
appropriate to refined taste: a man devoted to elegant pursuits.
5.
excellent; fine; superior: an absolutely elegant wine.
6.
(of scientific, technical, or mathematical theories, solutions, etc.) gracefully concise and simple; admirably succinct.
[Origin: 1400–50; late ME (< MF) < L élegant- (s. of élegāns) tasteful, choice, equiv. to éleg- (akin to élig- select; see elect) + -ant--ant; orig. prp. of lost v.]
el·e·gantAudio Help (ěl'ĭ-gənt) Pronunciation Key
adj.
Characterized by or exhibiting refined, tasteful beauty of manner, form, or style. See Synonyms at delicate.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ēlegāns, ēlegant-, present participle of *ēlegāre, variant of ēligere, to select; see elect.]
c.1485, from M.Fr. élégant, from L. elegantem (nom. elegans) "choice, fine, tasteful," prp. of eligere "select with care, choose." Elegans was originally a term of reproach, "dainty, fastidious;" the notion of "tastefully refined" emerged in classical L.
refined and tasteful in appearance or behavior or style; "elegant handwriting"; "an elegant dark suit"; "she was elegant to her fingertips"; "small churches with elegant white spires"; "an elegant mathematical solution--simple and precise and lucid" [ant: inelegant]
2.
suggesting taste, ease, and wealth
3.
displaying effortless beauty and simplicity in movement or execution; "an elegant dancer"; "an elegant mathematical solution -- simple and precise"
elegant (From Mathematics) Combining simplicity, power, and a certain ineffable grace of design. Higher praise than "clever", "winning" or even cuspy. The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery, probably best known for his classic children's book "The Little Prince", was also an aircraft designer. He gave us perhaps the best definition of engineering elegance when he said "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." [The Jargon File] (1994-11-29)
El"e*gant\, a. [L. elegans, -antis; akin to eligere to pick out, choose, select: cf. F. ['e]l['e]gant. See Elect.]1. Very choice, and hence, pleasing to good taste; characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from blemish, and the like; graceful; tasteful and highly attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure. A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature. --Prescott. 2. Exercising a nice choice; discriminating beauty or sensitive to beauty; as, elegant taste. Syn: Tasteful; polished; graceful; refined; comely; handsome; richly ornamental.
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Audio Help [el-i-guh
