different between chic vs swank

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French chic (“elegant”), probably from German Schick (“elegant appearance; tasteful presentation”), from Middle High German schicken (“to outfit oneself, fit in, arrange appropriately”), causative of Middle High German geschehen, gesch?n (“to happen, rush”), from Old High German giskehan (“to happen”), from Proto-Germanic *skehan? (“to run, move quickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *skek- (“to run, jump, spring”). The word is akin to Dutch schielijk (“hasty”), schikken (“to arrange”), Old English sc?on (“to happen”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sh?k, IPA^(key): /?i?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ik/
• Rhymes: -i?k
• Homophones: sheik, sheikh (one pronunciation)

Adjective

chic (comparative chicer or more chic, superlative chicest or most chic)

1. Elegant, stylish.

Synonyms

Antonyms

• inelegant, unelegant
• unchic
• unfashionable
• unstylish

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

chic (countable and uncountable, plural chics)

1. (chiefly uncountable) Good form; style.
2. (countable) A person with (a particular type of) chic.

Usage notes

The noun chic is very often used with an attributive noun or adjective modifier, indicating the kind of style, such as “boho-chic”, “heroin chic”, “shabby chic”, and so on.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• chic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• list of chics on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “‘Chic,’ Its History”, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc., volume VIII (5th Series), issue 197, London: Published at the office, […] by John Francis, 6 October 1877, pages 261–262.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Yucatec Maya chi?ik (“coati; buffoon”).

Noun

chic (plural chics)

1. A kind of ritual buffoon or clown in Yucatec Maya culture.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French chic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ik/
• Hyphenation: chic
• Rhymes: -ik

Adjective

chic (comparative chiquer, superlative chicst)

1. chic, elegant

   Synonym: sjiek

Inflection

Derived terms

• chic de friemel
• chicheid

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ik/, [??ik]

Adjective

chic (comparative chicimpi, superlative chicein)

1. chic

Declension

French

Etymology

Probably from German Schick (“elegant appearance; tasteful presentation”), from Middle High German schicken (“to outfit oneself, fit in, arrange appropriately”), causative of Middle High German geschehen, gesch?n (“to happen, rush”), from Old High German giskehan (“to happen”), from Proto-Germanic *skehan? (“to run, move quickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *skek- (“to run, jump, spring”). The word is akin to Dutch schielijk (“hasty”), schikken (“to arrange”), Old English sc?on (“to happen”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ik/
• Rhymes: -ik
• Homophones: chics, chique, chiquent, chiques

Adjective

chic (plural chic or chics)

1. elegant
2. considerate

Usage notes

Chic is either used invariably, in which case the spelling of the plural is chic, or has the plural chics for both the masculine and the feminine forms.

Derived terms

• bon chic bon genre

Descendants

• ? Dutch: chic, sjiek
• ? English: chic
• ? Finnish: chic
• ? German: schick
• ? Limburgish: sjiek
• ? Polish: szyk
• ? Portuguese: chique
• ? Spanish: chic

Noun

chic m (plural chic)

1. elegance
2. skillfulness; adroitness

Further reading

• “chic” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Adjective

chic (comparative chicer, superlative am chicsten)

1. Alternative spelling of schick

Usage notes

• While the spelling chic is correct for the uninflected adjective, all inflected forms are nonstandard. Correctly, inflected forms must be derived from the preferred spelling schick.

Declension

Further reading

• “chic” in Duden online

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ç?c/

Noun

chic

1. Lenited form of cic.

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chic.

Adjective

chic (plural chics)

1. elegant

Noun

chic m (uncountable)

1. elegance

Yucatec Maya

Noun

chic

1. Obsolete spelling of chi?ik

English

Etymology

From dialectal swank (“to strut, behave ostentatiously”), perhaps from an unrecorded Old English root, derived from Proto-Germanic *swankijan? (“to cause to sway, swing”) or from Proto-Germanic *swankaz (“lithe, bendsome, slender”), related to the Scots swank and the Middle High German swanken, modern German schwanken (“to sway”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /swæ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Adjective

swank (comparative swanker, superlative swankest)

1. Fashionably elegant, posh.
   • 2011, Richelle Mead, Succubus Dreams

     Warren, Emerald City's owner, had thrown a swank party at his house and invited the whole staff, along with about fifty others.

Noun

swank (countable and uncountable, plural swanks)

1. A fashionably elegant person.
2. Ostentation; bravado.

Verb

swank (third-person singular simple present swanks, present participle swanking, simple past and past participle swanked)

1. To swagger, to show off.

Related terms

• swankily
• swankiness
• swanky

Anagrams

• Kwans, kawns, knaws, wanks

Scots

Adjective

swank (comparative mair swank, superlative maist swank)

1. slender; pliant; agile; supple

   Synonym: swanking