4 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Elegant \El"e*gant\, a. [L. elegans, -antis; akin to eligere to
pick out choose select: cf F. ['e]l['e]gant. See {Elect}.]
1. Very choice, and hence pleasing to good taste;
characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the
absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and
approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from
blemish, and the like graceful; tasteful and highly
attractive; as elegant manners; elegant style of
composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure.
A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature.
--Prescott.
2. Exercising a nice choice; discriminating beauty or
sensitive to beauty; as elegant taste.
Syn: Tasteful; polished; graceful; refined; comely; handsome;
richly ornamental.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
elegant
adj 1: refined and tasteful in appearance or behavior or style;
"elegant handwriting"; "an elegant dark suit"; "she
was elegant to her fingertips"; "small churches with
elegant white spires"; "an elegant mathematical
solution--simple and precise and lucid" [ant: {inelegant}]
2: suggesting taste, ease, and wealth [syn: {graceful}, {refined}]
3: of seemingly effortless beauty in form or proportion
4: refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a
royal court; "a courtly gentleman" [syn: {courtly}, {formal},
{stately}]
From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]:
elegant adj [common; from mathematical usage] Combining
simplicity, power, and a certain ineffable grace of design. Higher praise
than `clever', `winning', or even {cuspy}.
The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de
Saint-Exupe'ry, probably best known for his classic children's book
"The Little Prince", was also an aircraft designer. He gave us perhaps
the best definition of engineering elegance when he said "A designer
knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add
but when there is nothing left to take away."
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]:
elegant
(From Mathematics) Combining simplicity, power, and a certain
ineffable grace of design. Higher praise than "clever",
winning" or even {cuspy}.
The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de
Saint-Exup'ery, probably best known for his classic children's
book "The Little Prince", was also an aircraft designer. He
gave us perhaps the best definition of engineering elegance
when he said "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not
when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing
left to take away."
[{Jargon File}]
(1994-11-29)
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