A word resembling, in its multitudinous perversion, the word nice as used by many persons in England. About thirty years ago, an old lady in Boston said to the present writer, “Some of the Psalms of David are real elegant.”
1765. The elegant Light-House building on Cape Cornelius.—Mass. Gazette, Dec. 6.
1766. John Hancock, Esq., gave a grand and elegant Entertainment to the genteel Part of the Town, and treated the Populace with a Pipe of Madeira Wine, [on the occasion of the Repeal of the Stamp Act].—Boston Evening Post, May 26.
1772. In the evening they exhibited some elegant fireworks from the balcony.—Mass. Spy, June 11.
1774. For Sale, “A most elegant Eight Day Clock.”—Boston Evening Post, Aug. 1.
1775. To be sold, as the Owner is going to leave the Province, an elegant little black Mare, rising six years.—Mass. Gazette, Feb. 13.
1776. The general [Montgomery] was shot through both his thighs and his head. His body was taken up the next day: an elegant coffin was prepared, and was decently interred the Thursday after.—W. Gordon, ‘Hist. Am. Rev.,’ ii. 187 (Lond., 1788).
1776. [At Boston, Linc.,] saw a very elegant monument of one of my family, Samuel Hutchinson, a wine merchant in 1696.—Thomas Hutchinson, ‘Diary,’ Oct. 21.
1778. An elegant well finished three story brick house.—Advt., Maryland Journal, Jan. 6.
1790. I offered her a pair of elegant paste buckles.—Mass. Spy, April 7.
1798. At Tyngsborough, an elegant School House has been reduced to ashes.—Mass. Spy, Feb. 21.
1799. Several Elegant Rooms may be rented for the season.—The Aurora, Phila., Aug. 9.
1799. For Sale, an Elegant Black Horse, about six years old.—Id., Dec. 10.
1799. The following Toasts were given, after partaking of an elegant dinner.—Intelligencer (Lancaster, Pa.), Nov. 27.
1800. [The Members of the Franklin Society] met at the Franklin Inn, and partook of an elegant Supper prepared for the occasion.—Id., Dec. 24.
1804. The Elegant High-bred Imported Horse Florizel.—Advt., Lancaster (Pa.) Journal, April 21.
1807. Yesterday the East India Marine Society … took an elegant dinner, presided by Capt. Webb.—Essex (Mass.) Register, Nov. 5.
1808. [The people of the small village of Murfreesborough, N.C.] erected by subscription an enormous liberty pole, 95 feet high, and adorned it with an elegant cap, in praise of the Embargo Act.—Mass. Spy, July 6.
1809. In the Essex (Mass.) Register, May 17, Morrill Marston advertises “Elegant Parasols”; and, June 7, Elizabeth Pierce “Elegant White Lace Veils.”
1816. The softest, whitest, most costly,—and, in a word, most elegant flannel.—Mass. Spy, April 24.
1817. An elegant improvement, is a cabin of rude logs, and a few acres with the trees cut down to the height of three feet, and surrounded by a worm-fence or zig-zag railing. You hear of an elegant mill, an elegant orchard, an elegant tan-yard, &c…. The word implies eligibility or usefulness in America, but has nothing to do with taste; which is a term as strange to the American language, where I have heard it spoken, as comfort is said to be to the French.—M. Birkbeck, ‘Journey in America,’ p. 152 (Phila.).
1818. “Elegant Real Estate” for sale.—Lancaster (Pa.) Journal, May 29.
1818. What you say is mighty elegant, and you’re an elegant man; but I guess you are not of these parts.—H. B. Feuron, ‘Sketches of America,’ p. 59 (Lond.).
1818. If you be not a hard character, I will let you have elegant lodgings.—Id., p. 66.
1819. On Saturday was launched from the shipyard of this place the elegant Steam Boat Mississippi, burthen 400 tons.—Blakeley (Ala.) Sun, Feb. 9.
1820. The good folks here [in Kentucky] have elegant hogs, and elegant bacon, elegant corn, and elegant whiskey, elegant land, and elegant tobacco; we have a man on board who is said to be an “elegant oarsman,” and another who is an “elegant hand with an axe.”—James Hall, ‘Letters from the West,’ p. 187 (Lond.).
1821. The fact, that, New-England abounds in elegant pieces of water, has not even made its appearance in the books, either of geographers or travellers.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ iv. 144.
1821. C. Mowry, the proprietor of the Intelligencer (Harrisburg, Pa.) announced on March 16 that he has “an elegant figure for the purpose of printing Horse Hand Bills.”
1824. An elegant cement may be made from rice flour.—Franklin Herald (Greenfield, Mass.), March 9.
1830. [He] constantly kept an elegant table, covered with costly wines and spirits, coffee, sweetmeats and other delicate and expensive refreshments.—N. Ames, ‘A Mariner’s Sketches,’ p. 26 (Providence).
1835. Above thirty sleighs from Wardsboro’ made an elegant turn on the common, and drove up to Higgins’s Hotel.—Vermont Free Press, Jan. 10.
1835. Elegant place for a lame man to walk, for every one is like him.—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 40 (Phila.).
1856. The elegant little pound-cakes of Mrs. Widdifield.—Knick. Mag., xlviii. 505 (Nov.).
