the.com/elegance
the art of doing more by removing everything that isn't necessary.
means The quality of being gracefully refined, simple, and pleasingly precise — whether in a person, a design, a solution, or a sentence.
from From Latin 'elegans,' meaning 'tasteful, refined,' which began life as a bit of an insult — early on it carried a whiff of the fussy and over-fastidious, someone who picked too carefully. It's tied to 'eligere,' 'to pick out, choose' (the same root behind 'elect' and 'select'), built from 'e-' ('out') and 'legere' ('to choose, gather, read'). So at its core, elegance is about choosing well — and the original sneer eventually softened into the compliment we use today.
- math meaning
- mathematicians call a proof elegant when it's shortest and clearest
- latin root
- from eligere, meaning to select or pick out
- design law
- perfection is reached when nothing's left to remove
- physics prize
- simplest theory predicting most is deemed most elegant
audrey hepburn — actress whose style defined sophistication in films like breakfast at tiffany's (1961)
grace jones — jamaican-american performer known for avant-garde androgynous aesthetic in 1970s-80s
coco chanel — french designer who revolutionized fashion by introducing simplicity and comfort to women's clothing (1910s)