gracile
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
gracile
- /ˈɡɹæsaɪl/ UK
- /-sɪl/ UK
- /ˈɡɹæˌsaɪl/ US
- /ˈɡɹæsəl/ US
- /ˈɡɹeɪˌsaɪl/ US
Rhymes with (General American) -æsəl
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Middle French gracil, gracile (“slender, thin”) (modern French gracile (“gracile”)), or directly from its etymon Latin gracilis (“slender, slim, thin; lean, meagre, scanty; simple, unadorned”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kerḱ- (“to become thin; to wane”). The sense “graceful or gracefully slender” was apparently influenced by the non-cognate word grace. The English word is cognate with Italian gracile (“delicate, frail; slender, thin”), Portuguese grácil, Spanish grácil (“graceful; delicate; slender”), and a doublet of gracilis.
adjective more gracile · most gracile
- Lean, slender, thin. [T]hoſe Trees that are called Firs by the Vulgar (from their near conformity and likeneſs to that Tree) are well known by all Learned Men (by the Redneſs, the Roſinous Nature of the Wood, the Gracil Cones hanging downwards, &c.) to be the true Pitch-Tree, of which there are ſuch great plenty in Norw
- Of an animal or skeletal element: having a slender frame. This tentative comparison, plus consideration of individual skulls, shows the Neolithic pre-Greeks more Mediterranean than the Greeks, with emphasis on intermediate or gracile Mediterranean rather more than on the rugged Basic White trend, [...]
- Graceful or gracefully slender. [A] band of dancers run upon the stage and perform a sylvan dance with gracile wavings of branches or the clinking of cymbals.
