Today's Word "urbane"
Polished and smooth in manner
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Published in Vocabulary
urbane \ur-BAYN\ (adjective) - Polished and smooth in manner; polite, refined, and elegant.
"The grey-haired man was obviously the woman's inferior; he sat on the ground at a distance, and although what he said was urbane enough, in the Malayan way, it was nothing like so urbane nor nearly as copious as her conversation, a steady, lively flow, not of anything so coarse as direct enquiry but of remarks that would have elicited information is Stephen had chosen to give it." -- Patrick O'Brien, 'The Nutmeg of Consolation'
rbane comes from Latin urbanus, "of a city," hence "refined, polished," from urbs, "city." The noun form is urbanity.
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