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flair - 5 dictionary results

flair

  [flair]
Use flair in a Sentence
–noun
1. a natural talent, aptitude, or ability; bent; knack: a flair for writing rhymes.
2. smartness of style, manner, etc.: Their window display has absolutely no flair at all.
3. keen perception or discernment.
4. Hunting. scent; sense of smell.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME < F, OF: scent, n. deriv. of flairier to reek ≪ VL *flāgrāre, dissimilated var. of L frāgrāre. See fragrant

Synonyms:
2. chic, dash, panache, verve; oomph, pizazz.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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flair   (flâr)   
n.  
  1. A natural talent or aptitude; a knack: a flair for interior decorating.
  2. Instinctive discernment; keenness: a flair for the exotica.
  3. Distinctive elegance or style: served us with flair.

[Middle English, fragrance, from Old French, from flairer, to scent, from Late Latin flāgrāre, alteration of Latin frāgrāre, to emit an odor.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Flair

Flair\ (fl[^a]r), n. [OE. flaireodor, fr. OF. & F. flair, fr. OF. flairier, F. flairer, to smell, LL. flagrare for L. fragrare. See Flagrant.]

1. Smell; odor. [Obs.]

2. Sense of smell; scent; fig., discriminating sense.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : flair
Spanish: don,
German: der Spürsinn,
Japanese: 勘
More Translations »

flair 
c.1340, "an odor," from O.Fr. flair "odor or scent," from flairer "to smell," from L.L. fragrare "emit (a sweet) odor" (see fragrant), with shift of -r- to -l- by dissimilation. Sense of "special aptitude" is Amer.Eng. 1925, perhaps from notion of a hound's ability to track scent.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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FLAIR language
An early system on the IBM 650.
[Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)].
(1995-03-17)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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