1. = ELEGANCE 1. rare in mod. use.
1552. Huloet, Elegancye, elegantia.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., xii. (1634), 107. Most of them venerable for their antiquitie and elegancy.
1674. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. § 15 (1682), 31. Two general advantages to the Leaves, Elegancy and Security.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 218. An elegancy ran through … persons as well as furniture.
1768. A. Calcott, Deluge, 407. Neither do the fossil reliquiæ … yield in elegancy … to the medalic insignatures.
1838. Emerson, Milton, Wks. (Bohn), III. 301. He threw himself, the flower of elegancy, on the side of the reeking conventicle.
b. humorously, in a form of address or title.
1824. Southey, Lett. (1856), III. 435. Your Elegancy will be looking for some news.
† 2. Of language and style; = ELEGANCE 2. Obs.
1531. Elyot, Gov. (1834), 38. The elegancy of poets.
1572. J. Jones, Bathes of Bath, I. 1 b. Tullie cheefe of all latyne elegancy.
1665. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 161–2. Some judgment might be made concerning the elegancy of the style.
1746. Chesterf., Lett., I. cv. 288. The purity, and the elegancy of his language.
3. concr. Something that is elegant; an instance or a kind of elegance; = ELEGANCE 5.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxxiv. 635. They count Greeke phrases for an elegancie.
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, IV. ii. 305. Instruct your wife’s woman in these elegancies.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. & Contempl. (1818), 157. Art never attempts to equal their incomparable elegancies.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. xxii. (1865), 170. Palates not uninstructed in dietetical elegancies.
1874. Pusey, Lent. Serm., 41. We must … have this or that elegancy … according to our condition of life.
