different between flair vs cleverness

English

Etymology

From Middle English flayre, from Old French flair (“scent, odour”), from flairier (“to reek, smell”), from Latin fl?gr?, dissimilated variation of fr?gr? (“emit a sweet smell”, verb). More at fragrant.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fl???/
• (US) enPR: flâr, IPA^(key): /fl???/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: flare

Noun

flair (countable and uncountable, plural flairs)

1. A natural or innate talent or aptitude.

   Synonyms: gift, knack, talent

   • 1999, Lucy Honig, The Truly Needy And Other Stories, University of Pittsburgh Press (?ISBN), page 73:

     The cafard. The cockroach. The French certainly had a flair for labeling their unhappiness. Long ago he had begun to visualize this nagging misery as the insect the word also named.

2. Distinctive style or elegance.

   Synonyms: elan, elegance, grace, panache, style
3. (obsolete) Smell; odor.
4. (obsolete) Olfaction; sense of smell.

Translations

Verb

flair (third-person singular simple present flairs, present participle flairing, simple past and past participle flaired)

1. (transitive) To add flair.

Anagrams

• filar, frail

French

Etymology

From flairer, from Latin flagrare (“to blow”). Cognate to Portuguese cheiro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl??/

Noun

flair m (plural flairs)

1. sense of smell
2. (by extension) intuition, sixth sense

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• rifla

Old French

Noun

flair m (oblique plural flairs, nominative singular flairs, nominative plural flair)

1. smell; odor
2. sense of smell

Scots

Alternative forms

• fluir

Etymology

From Old English fl?r.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fler/

Noun

flair (plural flairs)

1. floor
   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, p. 140:

     He skited it over the flair maybe if it was a jotter and it was you to go and get it.

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse fleiri, from Proto-Germanic *flaizô.

Adjective

flair

1. More; comparative of marge (“many,”) and mang.
2. Many, several.

English

Etymology

clever +? -ness

Noun

cleverness (countable and uncountable, plural clevernesses)

1. The property of being clever.
2. Something clever, or done cleverly.

Related terms

• cunning
• acumen

Translations