View source for Chic

{{Short description|Element of fashion}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Lead too short|date=December 2018}}
{{Wiktionary|position=right}}
'''Chic''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|iː|k}}; {{IPA|fr|ʃik|lang}}), meaning "stylish" or "smart", is an element of [[fashion]]. It was originally a [[French-speaking world|French word]].

==Etymology==
''[[:wikt:chic#French|Chic]]'' is a [[French-speaking world|French word]], established in [[English language|English]] since at least the 1870s. Early references in English dictionaries classified it as slang and [[New Zealand]]-born [[lexicographer]] [[Eric Partridge]] noted, with reference to its [[Colloquialism|colloquial]] meaning, that it was "not so used in Fr[ench]."<ref>''Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'', several ed 1937–61.{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref> [[Gustave Flaubert]] notes in ''[[Madame Bovary]]'' (published in 1856) that "chicard" (one who is chic) is then [[Paris]]ian very current slang for "classy" noting, perhaps derisively, perhaps not, that it was bourgeois. There is a similar word in [[German language|German]], ''[[:wikt:schick|schick]]'', with a meaning similar to ''chic'', which may be the origin of the word in [[French language|French]]; another theory links ''chic'' to the word ''[[:wikt:chicane#French|chicane]]''.<ref>{{OEtymD|chic}}</ref> Although the French pronunciation (/ˈʃiːk/ or "sheek") is now virtually standard and was that given by [[H. W. Fowler|Fowler]],<ref>''Modern English Usage'', 1926</ref> ''chic'' was often rendered in the [[anglicisation|anglicised]] form of "chick".<ref>An example was in [[Simon Raven]]'s ''[[Edward and Mrs Simpson]]'' (Thames, 1978), a television drama based on the events leading to the [[Abdication crisis]] of 1936, when the leader of the Labour Party, [[Clement Attlee]] (played by Patrick Troughton), used the word slightly contemptuously during a meeting with Prime Minister [[Stanley Baldwin]] (David Waller).</ref>
[[File:Monte Carlo Casino 2.JPG|thumb|280px|left|[[French Riviera|Riviera]] chic{{snd}}[[Monte Carlo]].]]
In a fictional [[vignette (literature)|vignette]] for ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' (''c''. 1932) Mrs F. A. Kilpatrick attributed to a young woman who 70 years later would have been called a "[[chavette]]" the following assertion: "It 'asn't go no buttons neither ... That's the latest ideer. If you want to be chick you just 'ang on to it, it seems".<ref>''Round the Year with Mr Punch'', vol XIX</ref>

By contrast, in [[Anita Loos]]' novel, ''[[Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel)|Gentlemen Prefer Blondes]]'' (1925), the diarist Lorelei Lee recorded that "the French use the word 'sheik' for everything, while we only seem to use it for gentlemen when they seem to resemble [[Rudolf Valentino]]" (a pun derived from the latter's being the star of the 1921 silent film, ''[[The Sheik (film)|The Sheik]]'').

The Oxford Dictionary{{clarify|reason=Oxford University Press publishes many dictionaries. Which one?|date=June 2020}} gives the comparative and superlative forms of ''chic'' as ''chicer'' and ''chicest''. These are wholly English words: the French equivalents would be ''plus chic'' and ''le/la plus chic''. ''Super-chic'' is sometimes used: "super-chic Incline bucket in mouth-blown, moulded glass".<ref>''Times Magazine'', 8 July 2006</ref>

An adverb ''chicly'' has also appeared: "Pamela Gross ... turned up chicly dressed down".<ref>''Tatler'', May 2006</ref>

The use of the French ''très chic'' (very chic) by an English speaker – "Luckily it's ''très'' chic to be neurotic in New York"<ref>[[Plum Sykes]] (2004) ''[[Bergdorf Blondes]]''</ref> – is usually rather pretentious, but sometimes merely facetious{{snd}}[[Micky Dolenz]] of [[The Monkees]] described the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indian]]-style suit he wore at the [[Monterey Pop Festival]] in 1967 as ''"très chic"''.<ref>Micky Dolenz & Mark Bego (1993) ''I'm a Believer''</ref> ''[[Über]]-chic'' is roughly the mock-German equivalent: "Like his clubs, it's super-modern, über-chic, yet still comfortable".<ref>''Times Magazine'', 24 June 2006</ref>

The opposite of "chic" is ''unchic'': "the then uncrowded, unchic little port of [[Saint Tropez|St Tropez]]".<ref>Peter Lewis (1978) ''The Fifties''</ref>

[[File:Lalique Garden 2005.JPG|thumb|250px|right|[[Chelsea Flower Show|Chelsea]] chic{{snd}}[[Lalique]] Garden, designed by Shahriar Mazandi, May 2005.]]

==Quotes==
Over the years "chic" has been applied to, among other things, social events, situations, individuals, and modes or styles of dress. It was one of a number of "slang words" that [[H. W. Fowler]] linked to particular professions – specifically, to "society journalism" – with the advice that, if used in such a context, "familiarity will disguise and sometimes it will bring out its slanginess."<ref>H W & [[Francis George Fowler|F G Fowler]], ''The King's English '', 3rd ed revised H W Fowler, 1930</ref>

*In 1887 ''[[The Lady (magazine)|The Lady]]'' noted that "the ladies of New York ... think no form of entertainment so ''chic'' as a luncheon party."<ref>''The Lady'', 20 January 1887</ref>
*Forty years later, in [[E. F. Benson]]'s novel ''[[Lucia in London]]'' (1927), Lucia was aware that the arrival of a glittering array of guests ''before their hostess'' for an impromptu post-opera gathering was "the most ''chic'' informality that it was possible to conceive."
*In the 1950s, [[Edith Head]] designed a classic dress, worn by [[Audrey Hepburn]] in the film [[Sabrina (1954 film)|''Sabrina'']] (1954), of which she remarked, "If it had been worn by somebody with no ''chic'' it would never have become a style."<ref>Ian Woodward (1984) ''Audrey Hepburn''</ref>
*By the turn of the 21st century, the travel company Thomas Cook was advising those wishing to sample the nightlife of the sophisticated Mediterranean resort of [[Monte Carlo]] that "casual is fine (except at the Casino) but make it expensive, and very chic, casual if you want to blend in."<ref>Paul Medbourne (2006) ''City Spots: Monte Carlo''</ref>
*According to American magazine ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'' (referring to the "dramatic simplicity" of the day-wear of couturier [[Cristóbal Balenciaga]], 1895–1972), "elimination is the secret of chic."<ref>See ''New Yorker'', 3 July 2006</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
*[[List of chics]]
*[[Superficiality]]

==References==
{{Reflist|20em}}

[[Category:Fashion aesthetics]]