chic

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French chic (“elegant”). See the French section, below, for more.

adj

1. Elegant, stylish.
   As he wisht to micks with the very chicest sosaity, and git the best of infmation about this country, Munseer Jools of coarse went and lodgd in Lester Square— […] 1847, Je—mes Pl—sh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Crinoline”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume XIII, London: Published at the office, 85, Fleet Street, →OCLC, page 72, column 2
   There are chic Cercles; or rather, there is only one, the Jockey Club. Why? Nobody can tell. Other Cercles are just as select, as exclusive, as well constituted, but not so chic. […] [T]he Jockey Club is so extremely chic, that many people consider the fact of belonging to it not as an ordinary circumstance, but as a dignity. 1870 July, “Parisine”, in London Society. An Illustrated Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature for the Hours of Relaxation, volume XVIII, number CIII, London: [Printed by William Clowes and Sons], →OCLC, pages 13–14
   What is chic may, in a sense, be fashionable, but what is fashionable cannot be chic. Anybody can wear and do what is fashionable. It is not fashionable unless a lot of people do it, and have it on—until, in three words that grate rather upon the ear, in this connection, it is common. Chic cannt be common. 1877 September, A. de F., “Chic”, in Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume LI, London: Richard Bentley & Son, […]; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers; Paris: Galignani, →OCLC, page 118
   The hair is actually cut about the ears like that of the quaint Dutch children from the little Island of Martken. This style of coiffure gives to the grown child a chic appearance and naive insouciance that is very fascinating. The hair is worn, either parted on the side or in the middle, and is held with a jeweled band or a fillet of ribbon which is most effective. It seems a fashion not likely to be adopted to any great extent by really smart women, although La Valliere, the chic little Parisian actress, is fascinating in this style of head-dress, […] 1915 February, “Told in the Boudoir: Concerning Coiffures in General and in Particular”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 3, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 74, column 1
   For Murray Marks he Richard Norman Shaw] designed a chic Oxford Street shopfront for the display of 'pots' (1875–6), […] 2010, Andrew Saint, “South and North”, in Richard Norman Shaw, revised (2nd) edition, New Haven, Conn., London: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, page 61
   Spanish Manchego cheese seems so much chicer than cheddar, but either pairs well with almonds, dried fruit, and rice crackers. 2013, Jenna Mahoney, “Do Some Semi-homemade”, in Mary Hern, editor, Small Apartment Hacks: 101 Ingenious DIY Solutions for Living, Organizing, and Entertaining, Berkeley, Calif.: Ulysses Press, part 3 (Entertaining), page 163

noun

1. (chiefly uncountable) Good form; style.
   A little pear-grey glove, dropped and abandoned on the floor, may give its owner's sex and chic to the whole room; whilst an entire house-full of so-called womanly trifles will have only a neuter flavour about them, if chic be not there. 1877 September, A. de F., “Chic”, in Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume LI, London: Richard Bentley & Son, […]; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers; Paris: Galignani, →OCLC, page 115
   [T]he macabre, when celebrated with the panache of a new range of retailed products, became a glib manifestation of chic: […] 2007, Matthew Craske, “A New Theatre of Death and Commemoration”, in The Silent Rhetoric of the Body: A History of Monumental Sculpture and Commemorative Art in England, 1720–1770, New Haven, Conn., London: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, page 60
   Terms such as "ghetto chic" and "gangsta' chic" are part of a cluster of high-fashion terms that describe styles that are in vogue but set against mainstream norms. Other "chics" include "nerd chic," "geek chic," and the controversial "heroin chic," in which models appear as drug addicts […] 2014, Susan Falls, “Notes [Notes to Chapter 5]”, in Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds, New York, N.Y., London: New York University Press, footnote 4, page 195
2. (countable) A person with (a particular type of) chic.
   It was probably fortunate for him Bernard Lazare] that the police, who started keeping a fairly regular watch on his activities in April 1893, also inclined towards thinking that he was merely following the fashion of other young ‘bourgeois chics’ (though at times they evidently had second thoughts). 1978, Nelly Wilson, “Anarchism”, in Bernard-Lazare: Antisemitism and the Problem of Jewish Identity in Late Nineteenth-century France, paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 2010, part I (Before the Dreyfus Affair), page 47
   Striving for admission in those exclusive circles so as to gain higher social recognition and acceptance by the chics, anthropologists who were already subservient to other philosophical musings such as hermeneutics and phenomenology, started to upgrade their language and to treat cultures as "texts". 1995, Pierre Maranda, “Beyond Postmodernism: Resonant Anthropology”, in Gilles Bibeau, Ellen Corin, editors, Beyond Textuality: Asceticism and Violence in Anthropological Interpretation (Approaches to Semiotics; 120), Berlin, New York, N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter, page 329
   The potheads were either smoking or eating or giggling or some combination of the three. The heroin chics were nodding out. 2005, Pamela Anderson, Star Struck, New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, page 149

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Yucatec Maya chiʼik (“coati; buffoon”).

noun

1. A kind of ritual buffoon or clown in Yucatec Maya culture.
   the chics of Dzitas, Yucatán, if they caught a small boy, removed his clothes and rubbed gunpowder in his anus. In the Yucatec barrio of “Santiago,” the chics amuse crowds by lassoing men and fining them 1972, Sarah C. Blaffer, The Black-man of Zinacantan: A Central American Legend, Austin and London: University of Texas Press, page 51
   Along with them came a man of the village known for his humorous antics; he was called the chic. Riding atop the cut tree, the chic danced and performed for the people as the procession made its way back to the village. 2001, Victoria Schlesinger, Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya: A Guide, 2nd paperback edition, Austin: University of Texas Press, published 2004, page 178