Meanings
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1
noun
the cultivated dress, manners, wit, and self-presentation characteristic of a dandy
His immaculate coat and studied indifference turned dandyism into a daily performance.
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Thesaurus
Synonyms
2
noun
· the historical aesthetic...
aesthetic self-fashioningcult of elegance
Opposites
slovenlinessartlessness
Etymology
From dandy + -ism. Dandy is of uncertain origin, though it is related to earlier expressions such as Jack-a-dandy. In the nineteenth century dandyism grew beyond fashionable dress into a deliberate aesthetic of self-command, wit, elegance, and resistance to bourgeois convention.