elegance (elegans)

[= D. elegantie = G. eleganz = Dan. elegance = Sw. elegans, IMG:content-0301.png:[blocks in formation] like an island the sea, with an elegance of contour which no mood of the year can deepen or diminish. H. James, Jr. , Trans. Sketches, p. 152. Gray's perfect elegance could nowhere have found a more admirable foil than in the vulgar jauntine and clumsy drollery of his correspondent, Mason. Lowell, New Princeton Rev., I. 167. 2. That which pleases by its nicety, symmetry, purity, or beauty; an elegancy: as, the elegances of polite society. =Syn. 1. Grace, beauty, polish. See comparison under elegant. elegancy (el'e-gan-si), n.; pl. elegancies (-siz). 1. The quality of being elegant; elegance. [Rare.] Let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystalline gla , and a rich cupola in the midst, and all other elegancy that may be thought upon. Bacon , Building (ed. 1887). 2. That which imparts elegance; an elegant characteristic or quality. Such kind of inspired knowledge of strange tongues as includes all the native peculiarities, which, if you will, you may call their elegancies . War burton, Doctrine of Grace, i. 8. The beautiful wildne of nature, without the nicer elegancies of art. Spectator , No. 477. elegant (el'e-gant), a. [= D. G. Dan. Sw. ele gant, Under this contrariety of identification, an elegant critic Putten ham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, Int., p. vi. IMG:content-0302.png:[blocks in formation] 2. Polished; polite; refined; graceful: said of persons: as, an elegant lady or gentleman. -3. Characterized by or pertaining to good taste; indicating a refined propriety of taste: as, elegant manners. Why will you endeavour to make yourself so disagree able to me, and thwart me in every little elegant expense? Sheridan , School for Scandal, ii. 1. 4. Expre ed with taste and neatne ; correct and polished in expre ion or arrangement: as, an elegant style of composition; elegant speech. I have likewise heard this elegant distich on. IMG:content-0303.png:[blocks in formation] He entered the Church early, but devoted himself to the study of canon law and of elegant literature. Ticknor, Span. Lit., I. 414. 5. Pleasing to the eye by grace of form or delicacy of color; characterized by exquisitene of design or fine taste; free from coarsene , blemish, or other defect; refined; as, an elegant figure; an elegant vase; an elegant structure. 6. Pleasing to the mind, as exhibiting fine perception of what is required; calculated to effect its purpose with exceeding accuracy, delicacy, and neatne ; exquisitely ingenious or appropriate: as, an elegant modification of a philosophical instrument; an elegant algebraical formula or mathematical demonstration; an elegant che problem. An elegant sufficiency, content, Retirement, rural quiet. Thomson , Spring, 1. 1158. =Syn. Elegant, Graceful, tasteful, courtly. Elegant im. plies that anything of an artificial character to which it applied is the result of training and cultivation through the study of models or ideals of grace; graceful implies le of consciousne , and suggests often a natural gift. A rustic, uneducated girl may be naturally graceful, but not elegant. We speak of elegant manners, composition, furniture, taste, but of a graceful tree, fawn, child; the playful movements of a kitten may be graceful. See beau IMG:content-0304.png:[blocks in formation] manner; with elegance. Sir Henry Wotton delivered his amba age most elegantly in the Italian language. I. Walton, Sir H. Wotton. Dr. Warren preached before the Prince e of the ble edne e of the pure in heart, most elegantly describing the bli e of the beatifical vision. Evelyn , Diary, Oct. 24, 1686. elegiac (e-le'ji-ak or el-e-ji'ak), a. and n. [For merly elegiack; = F. élégiaque = Sp. elegíaco = Pg. It. elegiaco, IMG:content-0305.png:[blocks in formation] Verses or poems consisting of elegiac distichs are called elegiac verses or poems ( elegiacs ); poetry composed in this meter, elegiac verse or poetry ( the elegy ); and the writers who employed this verse, especially those who employed it exclusively or by preference, are known as the elegiac poets. Elegiac verse seems to have been used primarily in threnetic pieces (poems lamenting or commemorating the dead), or to have been a ociated with music of a kind regarded by the Greeks as mournful. Almost from its first appearance in literature, however, it is found used for compositions of various kinds. The principal Roman elegiac poets are Catullus, Tibullus, Pro pert i us, and Ovid. In modern German literature the elegiac meter has been frequently used, especially by Goethe and Schiller. Cole ridge's translation from the latter poet may serve as an example in English. În thê hêx | ảámětér | rises the | fountain's | sīlvěrỹ | col- umn, În thê pên | tamëtër aye | fälling în | mělody | back. Cole ridge, The Ovidian Elegiac Meter. You should crave his rule For pauses in the elegiac couplet, chasms Permi ible only to Catullus! Browning , Ring and Book, I. 276. 2. Belonging to an elegy, or to elegy; having to do with elegies. Arnold is a great elegiac poet, but there is a buoyancy in his elegy which we rarely find in the best elegy, and which certainly adds greatly to its charm. Contemporary Rev., XLIX. 528. Hence-3. Expre ing sorrow or lamentation: as, elegiac strains. Let elegiack lay the woe relate, Soft as the breath of distant flutes. Gay , Trivia. Gray, Letters, I. 220. II. n. In pros.: (a) A pentameter, or verse consisting of two dactylic penthemims or written in elegiac meter. (b) pl . A succe ion of distichs consisting each of a dactylic hexameter and a dipenthemim; a poem or poems in such distichs: as, the Heroides and Tristia of Ovid are written in elegiacs . See I. elegiacal (el-e-ji'a-kal), a . [ elegiac + -al . ] Same as elegiac . Mr. Lyttleton is a gentle elegiac person. He was the author of a very large number of volumes of lyrical, elegiacal and romantic verse. The American , VIII. 251.