urbane

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Of a person (usually a man): having refined manners; courteous, polite, suave.

   We took advantage of our acquaintance with the urbane Frenchman to join his party; the conversation turned almost entirely on literary subjects.

Simplified etymology

Urbane entered English in the mid-16th century from Latin urbanus, “belonging to the city,” derived from urbs, “city.” Its first English sense was “urban.”

A variant of urban + -ane (a variant of -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives)). Urban is borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”), from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or *werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus (s...

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External links

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