urbane

English

Etymology

From Middle French urbain (“urban, belonging to a city; also: polite, courteous, elegant, urbane”), from Latin urbānus (“belonging to a city”), with a sense of “having the manners of townspeople” in Classical Latin, from urbs (“city”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɜːˈbeɪn/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ɝˈbeɪn/
Rhymes: -eɪn
Audio (US) (file)

Adjective

urbane (comparative urbaner or more urbane, superlative urbanest or most urbane)

(of a person, usually a man) Courteous, polite, refined, and suave.
Synonym: debonair
Antonym: rustic
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:
  The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!
- 1876–1877, Henry James, Jr., The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, OCLC 4655661:
  Newman, at this juncture, fell to admiring the duchess for her fine manners. He felt, most accurately, that she was not a grain less urbane than she would have been if his marriage were still in prospect; but he felt also that she was not a particle more urbane.
- 1897, Eugen Egner, Midland Monthly Magazine‎, J. Birgham, page 245:
  However, there was nothing for it but to welcome her with all the heartiness I could summon. The sepulchral atomosphere of the parlor had chilled and dampened the spirits of this usually urbane woman, while disappointment and disgust were written in every line of that strong face.
- 1976, Eugen Egner, National Geographic, Volume 149‎, National Geographic Society, page 106:
  Our people must have some control over our destiny," reasons Wilma Muth, an urbane woman who serves as Inyo County supervisor.
- 1992, Thomas DiPiero, Dangerous Truths and Criminal Passions: The Evolution of the French Novel, 1569-1791‎, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 237:
  Mme de Chartres' advice to her daughter consisted only of prohibitions from which we might infer that the virtuous urbane woman was both inactive and invisible, obviously not a particularly suitable subject for the elaboration of engaging tales.
- 2017 September 27, David Browne, “Hugh Hefner, 'Playboy' Founder, Dead at 91”, in rollingstone.com‎:
  And with his trademark smoking jackets and pipes – and the silk pajamas he would often wear to work – Hefner became the embodiment of a sexually adventurous yet urbane image and lifestyle, a seeming role model for generations of men.

Derived terms

urbanely

Related terms

urban

Translations

courteous, polite, refined, suave, and sophisticated

Bulgarian: изискан (bg) (iziskan), изтънчен (bg) (iztǎnčen), вежлив (bg) (vežliv)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 彬彬有礼的
Czech: jemný (cs) m, zdvořilý (cs) m, uhlazený m
French: urbain (fr)
German: weltgewandt, weltmännisch
Greek: κόσμιος (el) (kósmios)
Ancient: ἀστεῖος (asteîos)
Latin: urbānus (la)
Plautdietsch: heeflich
Russian: учти́вый (ru) (učtívyj), ве́жливый (ru) (véžlivyj), обходи́тельный (ru) (obxodítelʹnyj)
Spanish: urbano (es), cortés (es)
Swedish: belevad (sv), världsvan (sv), urban (sv), artig (sv)

References

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
urbane in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
urbane in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
“urbane”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
“urbane”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
“urbane”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
“urbane” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2023.
urbane at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

unbare, unbear

German

Pronunciation

Audio (file)

Adjective

urbane

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

Italian

Adjective

urbane f pl

feminine plural of urbano

Anagrams

eburna

Latin

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /urˈbaː.ne/, [ʊrˈbäːnɛ]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /urˈba.ne/, [urˈbäːne]

Noun

urbāne

vocative singular of urbānus

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /urˈbaː.neː/, [ʊrˈbäːneː]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /urˈba.ne/, [urˈbäːne]

Adverb

urbānē (comparative urbānius, superlative urbānissimē)

urbanely

References

“urbane”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“urbane”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

urbane

definite singular and plural of urban

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

urbane

definite singular and plural of urban