different between vigour vs flair

English

Alternative forms

• vigor (US)
• vygour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English vigour, from Old French vigour, from vigor, from Latin vigor, from vigeo (“thrive, flourish”), from Proto-Indo-European [Term?].

Related to vigil.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?v???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?v???/
• Rhymes: -???(?)

Noun

vigour (countable and uncountable, plural vigours)

1. Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; energy.
2. (biology) Strength or force in animal or vegetable nature or action.

   A plant grows with vigour.

3. Strength; efficacy; potency.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     But in the fruithful earth: there first receiv'd / His beams, unactive else, their vigour find.

Usage notes

Vigour and its derivatives commonly imply active strength, or the power of action and exertion, in distinction from passive strength, or strength to endure.

Derived terms

• envigorate
• vigorous
• hybrid vigor/hybrid vigour

Related terms

• vegetable
• vigil

Translations

Old French

Noun

vigour m (oblique plural vigours, nominative singular vigours, nominative plural vigour)

1. Alternative form of vigur

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.