different between exquisite vs rarefied

English

Etymology

From Latin exqu?s?tus, perfect passive participle of exqu?r? (“seek out”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?skw?z?t/, /??kskw?z?t/

Adjective

exquisite (comparative more exquisite, superlative most exquisite)

1. Especially fine or pleasing; exceptional.

   • Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.

2. (obsolete) Carefully adjusted; precise; accurate; exact.
3. Recherché; far-fetched; abstruse.
4. Of special beauty or rare excellence.
5. Exceeding; extreme; keen, in a bad or a good sense.

6. Of delicate perception or close and accurate discrimination; not easy to satisfy; exact; fastidious.

   • his books of Oriental languages, wherein he was exquisite

Synonyms

• beautiful, delicate, discriminating, perfect

Translations

Noun

exquisite (plural exquisites)

1. (rare) Fop, dandy. [from early 20th c.]
   • 1849, Alexander Mackay, The western world; or, travels in the United States in 1846-87 (page 93)

     It is impossible to meet with a more finished coxcomb than a Broadway exquisite, or a “Broadway swell,” which is the designation attached to him on the spot.

   • 1925, P. G. Wodehouse, Sam the Sudden, Random House, London:2007, p. 42.

     So striking was his appearance that two exquisites, emerging from the Savoy Hotel and pausing on the pavement to wait for a vacant taxi, eyed him with pained disapproval as he approached, and then, starting, stared in amazement.

     'Good Lord!' said the first exquisite.

Translations

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

exquisite

1. inflection of exquisit:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Latin

Participle

exqu?s?te

1. vocative masculine singular of exqu?s?tus

References

• exquisite in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

English

Alternative forms

• rarified

Adjective

rarefied (comparative more rarefied, superlative most rarefied)

1. Distant from the lives and everyday concerns of ordinary people; esoteric, exclusive, select.

   Philosophical debates can be quite rarefied.

2. Elevated in style or nature, sublime; of high intellectual or moral value.
3. (of a gas etc.) Less dense than usual; thin.

   The air at high altitudes at the top of mountains is rarefied.

Translations

Verb

rarefied

1. simple past tense and past participle of rarefy