December 18, 2009

  • OED

    Subscribed to OED on-line through HKU Library a few months ago. Not too much time to actually bother consulting it, but in each occassion it gives me great pleasure exploring unexpected meanings and interesting quotes of the words in the English language.

    Today, just discovered that 'elegant' may have a negative meaning, and man are advised by the wise Barclay not to be 'such elegant toys that wanton women may incline'. Yeah, this is the no. 1 definition of 'elegant' in the 23-volume Oxford English Dictionary.

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    elegant, a.

    1. Tastefully ornate in attire; sometimes in unfavourable sense: Dainty, foppish.

    1509 BARCLAY Ship of Fooles (1570) 113:
    It is .. not for man to be so elegant, To such toyes wanton women may encline.


    "Oxford English Dictionary"