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urbane: msg#00029

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: urbane

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The Word of the Day for August 30 is:

urbane \er-BAYN\ adjective
: notably polite or polished in manner

Example sentence:
Mr. Murray is the epitome of an urbane gentleman:
meticulously groomed, faultlessly polite, always poised and
gracious in every situation.

Did you know?
City slickers and country folk have long debated whether
life is better on the town or in the wide open spaces,
and "urbane" is a term that springs from the throes of that
debate. The word traces back to the Latin "urbs,"
meaning "city," and in its earliest English uses in the 17th
century "urbane" was synonymous with its close relative "urban"
(which was first recorded in English only a few years
earlier). "Urbane" developed its modern sense of savoir faire
from the belief (no doubt fostered by city dwellers) that life
in the city was much more suave and polished than life in the
country.






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