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Origin and history of chic

chic(n.)

1856, "style in fine art, artistic skill, faculty of producing excellence rapidly and easily," from French chic "stylishness" (19c.), originally "subtlety" (16c.), which is of unknown origin. Perhaps [Klein] it is related to German Schick, Geschick "tact, skill, aptness," from Middle Low German schikken "arrange appropriately," or Middle High German schicken "to arrange, set in order." Or perhaps it is from French chicane, from chicanerie "trickery" (see chicanery).

The meaning "Parisian elegance and stylishness combined with originality" is by 1882 (Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 6, 1888, uses the word in a concert review and pauses to define it as "an untranslatable word, denoting an indispensable quality"). As an adjective, in reference to persons, "stylish," 1879 in English. "Not so used in F[rench]" [OED].

also from 1856

Entries linking to chic

chicanery(n.)

c. 1610s, "legal quibbling, sophistry, mean or petty tricks," from French chicanerie "trickery," from chicaner "to pettifog, quibble" (15c.), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle Low German schikken "to arrange, bring about," or from the name of a golf-like game once played in Languedoc. Also compare French chic "small, little," as a noun "a small piece; finesse, subtlety." Thornton's "American Glossary" has shecoonery (1845), which it describes as probably a corruption of chicanery.

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    radical
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    a word used in English in various senses, including "act of chicanery, art of gaining advantage by using evasions or cheating tricks" (1670s), also "obstacles on a roadway" (by 1935), also a term in bridge (1880s), apparently all ultimately from an archaic verb chicane "to trick"
    last
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    word
    Old English word "speech, talk, utterance, sentence, statement, news, report, word," from Proto-Germanic *wurda- (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian word, Dutch woord, Old High German, German wort, Old Norse orð, Gothic waurd), from PIE *were- (3) "speak, say" (see verb). The
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    mid-12c., "distinctive flag or other conspicuous object displayed from a position in battle to serve as a rallying point for a military force," from shortened form of Old French estandart "military standard, banner" (Anglo-French estandard) and in part from Medieval Latin standar
    brain
    "soft, grayish mass filling the cranial cavity of a vertebrate," in the broadest sense, "organ of consciousness and the mind," Old English brægen "brain," from Proto-Germanic *bragnan (source also of Middle Low German bregen, Old Frisian and Dutch brein), a word of uncertain orig
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    c. 1300, "despite, contempt," from Old French prejudice "a prejudice, prejudgment; damage" (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin prejudicium "injustice," from Latin praeiudicium "prior judgment, judicial examination before trial; damage, harm," from prae- "before" (see pre-) +

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