soigné

See also: soigne

English

WOTD – 5 April 2009

Alternative forms

• soigne

Etymology

Borrowed from French soigné, past participle of soigner. Doublet of soigneur.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈswɑː.njeɪ/, /swɑːˈnjeɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /swɑˈnjeɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (UK) -ɑːnjeɪ, -eɪ

Adjective

soigné (not comparable)

1. Fashionable and elegant, well-groomed.
   • 1997 February 20, Steve Silberman, “Burroughs Pops Online Cherry with Drag Queens”, in Wired‎^[1]:

     Custom Java apps and CU-SeeMe feeds will provide interaction with the battery of soigné psychics.

   • 1997, Henry Louis Gates Jr., “The Passing of Anatole Broyard”, in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man, New York: Random House, page 181:

     Always, he radiated an air of soigné self-confidence: he could be amiable in his opinions or waspish, but he never betrayed a flicker of doubt about what he thought.

   • 1998 March 20, “The Tickled French”, in Wall Street Journal Online, Dow Jones & Company:

     Inspired surely by the old socialist slogan "from cradle to grave," the soigné French health ministry will now also take care of the French in bed.

   • 2005 July 5, Charles Stross, Accelerando‎^[2], →ISBN, archived from the original on 27 January 2012, chapter 8, paragraph 2365:

     He's in line behind a gaggle of young-looking women, skinny and soigné in cocktail gowns and tiaras lifted from 1920s silent movies.

   • 2009 March 14, Vanessa Friedman, “Trends at Paris fashion week”, in Financial Times, London:

     But a graceful scoop here, a soigné knot there, and voilà: Aphrodite meets the Eiffel Tower.

   • 2009 March 18, Curt Sanburn, “Where’s the Pink?”, in Honolulu Weekly‎^[3], archived from the original on 5 January 2010:

     The gleaming black stone floors of the lobby, the soigné pink-and-white awnings that shaded the beachfront Mai Tai Bar and Surf Room, the spacious lawns and gardens with the oldest and tallest coconut trees anywhere…all were touchstones for everything good about Hawaiian hospitality, for everything that was ever truly well done in Waikīkī.

Usage notes

The French feminine form soignée is often used instead when applied to a female.

Related terms

• soigneur

Anagrams

• geison, genios, goes in, ingoes, isogen

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swa.ɲe/

Adjective

soigné (feminine soignée, masculine plural soignés, feminine plural soignées)

1. immaculate (of clothes, etc.); well-manicured (nails)
2. carefully made, well produced
3. meticulous (of work, etc.)

Participle

soigné (feminine soignée, masculine plural soignés, feminine plural soignées)

1. past participle of soigner

Further reading

• “soigné”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• Génois, génois, oignes