[a. Fr. élégance, ad. L. ēlegāntia, f. ēlegānt-em: see ELEGANT.] The quality or state of being elegant.
1. Refined grace of form and movement, tastefulness of adornment, refined luxury, etc. See ELEGANT 1, 2, 3.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. Introd. 7. The … elegance discoverable in their outward appearance.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., II. 140. With untutored elegance she dressed.
1821. 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 & V., I. 1. Nowhere else in the world could you see such a display of luxury and elegance.
2. Of spoken or written compositions, literary style, etc.: Tasteful correctness, harmonious simplicity, in the choice and arrangement of words. See ELEGANT 4.
c. 1510. Barclay, Mirr. Good Mann. (1570), G. vj. In eligance of meter and speeche.
1589. Nashe, Pref. Greene’s Menaph. (Arb.), 10. Sir Thomas Eliots elegance did seuer it selfe from all equales.
1616. Pasquil & Kath., IV. 270. I … Detest thy purest elegance of speech.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 157, ¶ 11. Nothing to say of elegance … equal to my wishes.
1824. Landor, Imag. Conv., xxvii. Wks. 1846, I. 165. Elegance, by which I always mean precision and correctness.
1882. Hinsdale, Garfield & Educ., II. 402. The elegance of her translations.
3. a. Of scientific processes, demonstrations, inventions, etc.: ‘Neatness,’ ingenious simplicity, convenience and effectiveness; so of a prescription, etc. See ELEGANT 5. b. Roman Law: transl. L. elegantia juris: see quot. 1864.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 285. Nor do I doubt but they might be used, with as much elegance, in emulsions, in many medical cases.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., xi. 84. This formula, undoubtedly of great elegance, probably was not derived by a direct mathematical process.
1864. Maine, Anc. Law, iv. (1876), 79. To this sense of simplicity and harmony … significantly termed ‘elegance’ … the Roman jurisconsults … surrendered themselves.
4. † a. Correctness of taste: cf. ELEGANT 6. Obs.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 116/1. Ælian argued the Elegance of the Person, in choosing such things as were fair.
b. Of manners, etc.: Refined propriety.
1816. Miss Austen, Emma, I. xvi. 114. With all the gentleness of his address, true elegance was sometimes wanting.
5. concr. Something that is elegant; a particular instance or kind of elegance.
1676. Evelyn, Diary (1827), II. 417. A nice contriver of all elegances.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. IV. 126. He has left in his Homer a treasure of poetical elegances to posterity.
1824–9. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), 88. What your father and grandfather used as an elegance in conversation is now abandoned to the populace.
1837. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 3), I. xxvi. 396. The measure of this world’s elegances.
1863. Emerson, Thoreau, Wks. (Bohn), III. 337. He had many elegances of his own.
