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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Elegance \El"e*gance\, Elegancy \El"e*gan*cy\, noun [L. elegantia, fr. elegans, -antis, elegant: cf. F. ['e]l['e]gance.]
1. The state or quality of being elegant; beauty as resulting from choice qualities and the complete absence of what deforms or impresses unpleasantly; grace given by art or practice; fine polish; refinement; -- said of manners, language, style, form, architecture, etc.
That grace that elegance affords. --Drayton.
The endearing elegance of female friendship. --Johnson.
A trait of native elegance, seldom seen in the masculine character after childhood or early youth, was shown in the General's fondness for the sight and fragrance of flowers. --Hawthorne.
2. That which is elegant; that which is tasteful and highly attractive.
The beautiful wildness of nature, without the nicer elegancies of art. --Spectator.
Syn: {Elegance}, {Grace}. Elegance implies something of a select style of beauty, which is usually produced by art, skill, or training; as, elegance of manners, composition, handwriting, etc.; elegant furniture; an elegant house, etc. Grace, as the word is here used, refers to bodily movements, and is a lower order of beauty. It may be a natural gift; thus, the manners of a peasant girl may be graceful, but can hardly be called elegant.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
elegance
noun: a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste [ant: {inelegance}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
184 Moby Thesaurus words for "elegance": Babylonian splendor, acquired taste, amenities, appreciation of excellence, arabesque, attractiveness, baroque, baroqueness, beauteousness, beautifulness, beauty, beauty unadorned, bloom, breeding, brilliance, charm, cheeseparing, chic, chinoiserie, choiceness, civilities, civility, civilized taste, civilizedness, clothes-consciousness, comity, convention, courtliness, coxcombry, cultivated taste, cultivation, culture, daintiness, dandyism, decencies, decency, decorousness, decorum, delicacy, dignity, diplomatic code, discrimination, ease, economy, economy of assumption, economy of means, elaborateness, elegancies, etiquette, euphemism, euphuism, excellence, exquisite manners, exquisiteness, facility, fanciness, fastidiousness, fineness, finesse, flamboyance, floridity, floridness, flow, floweriness, fluency, foppery, foppishness, formalism, formalities, formality, frugality, genteelness, gentility, gentlemanlikeness, gentlemanliness, gentleness, glory, glow, good breeding, good form, good manners, good taste, goody-goodness, goody-goodyism, gorgeousness, grace, gracefulness, gracility, graciosity, graciousness, grandeur, grandiosity, grandness, handsomeness, imposingness, impressiveness, jauntiness, ladylikeness, lavishness, law of parsimony, loveliness, lushness, luxuriance, luxuriousness, luxury, magnificence, majesty, manners, modesty, mores, moresque, nattiness, natural politeness, neatness, niceness, nicety, nobility, ostentation, overelaborateness, overelegance, overniceness, overornamentation, overpreciseness, overrefinement, parsimoniousness, parsimony, pedantry, pinching, plushness, poetry, point of etiquette, polish, politeness, politesse, poshness, preciosity, preciousness, precisianism, prettiness, proprieties, propriety, protocol, proudness, pudency, pudicity, pulchritude, punctilio, purism, quality, quiet good manners, refinement, resplendence, richness, ritziness, rococo, rules of conduct, scrimping, seemliness, shame, sharpness, skimping, sleekness, smartness, smoothness, social code, social conduct, social graces, social procedures, social usage, sophistication, spiffiness, splendidness, splendiferousness, splendor, state, stateliness, stinting, style, subtlety, sumptuousness, taste, tastefulness, the beautiful, trimness
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