flair
[flair]
- a natural talent, aptitude, or ability; bent; knack: a flair for rhyming.
- smartness of style, manner, etc.: Their window display has absolutely no flair at all.
- keen, intuitive perception or discernment: We want a casting director with a real flair for finding dramatic talent.
- Hunting. scent; sense of smell.
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Origin of flair
1350–1400; Middle English < French, Old French: scent, noun derivative of flairier to reek ≪ Vulgar Latin *flāgrāre, dissimilated variant of Latin frāgrāre. See fragrant
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for flair
Contemporary Examples
“They are motivated by insecurity, fear, lack of imagination and above all, a lack of flair,” he said.
She does not shy from a fight, and she has a flair for political theater to make Ted Cruz envious.
Worn singularly or layered for a more dramatic effect, the thin metal bands evoke an ethnic sort of flair.
First Knuckle Rings, Popular During the Renaissance, Return to FashionMisty White Sidell
January 31, 2013
And it bespeaks a confidence and flair not often attributed to the much-maligned candidate.
“He had a flair for the dramatic, to be sure, but it was for more than theatrics,” Clinton said.
Historical Examples
There was a flair of vanity in Gaddon that dated back to his English ancestry.
The MonsterS. M. Tenneshaw
You see, heart counts, and sympathy, and the flair for understanding.
The Devil's PawE. Phillips Oppenheim
He has the flair of the dealer, not the perception of the amateur.
AppearancesGoldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
The Virginian flair for political life was thus early in evidence.
Pioneers of the Old SouthMary Johnston
Now Isabelle had a flair for the odd, and she understood her own limitations and her own style.
The CricketMarjorie Cooke
flair1
- natural ability; talent; aptitude
- instinctive discernment; perceptiveness
- stylishness or elegance; dashto dress with flair
- hunting rare
- the scent left by quarry
- the sense of smell of a hound
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Word Origin
C19: from French, literally: sense of smell, from Old French: scent, from flairier to give off a smell, ultimately from Latin frāgrāre to smell sweet; see fragrant
flair2
- a Scot word for floor
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for flair
n.
mid-14c., "an odor," from Old French flair "odor or scent," from flairer "to smell," from Vulgar Latin *flagrare, dissimilated from Latin fragrare "emit (a sweet) odor" (see fragrant). Sense of "special aptitude" is American English, 1925, perhaps from notion of a hound's ability to track scent.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper