flair

Etymology

From Middle English flayre, from Old French flair (“scent, odour”), from flairier (“to reek, smell”), from Latin flāgrō, dissimilated variation of frāgrō (“emit a sweet smell”, verb). More at fragrant.

noun

1. A natural or innate talent or aptitude.
   to have a flair for art
   For all his directorial flair, though, Jones may well be best remembered for creating such characters as Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson, Cardinal Biggles of the Spanish Inquisition, the Scottish poet Ewan McTeagle and the monstrous musician rodent beater in the mouse organ sketch who hits specially tuned mice with mallets. January 22, 2020, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian
   The cafard. The cockroach. The French certainly had a flair for labeling their unhappiness. Long ago he had begun to visualize this nagging misery as the insect the word also named. 1999, Lucy Honig, The Truly Needy And Other Stories, University of Pittsburgh Press, page 73
2. Distinctive style or elegance.
   to dress with flair
   You know what, Stan, if you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, like your pretty boy over there, Brian, why don't you just make the minimum 37 pieces of flair? 1999, Mike Judge, Office Space, spoken by Joanna (Jennifer Aniston)
3. (obsolete) Smell; odor.
4. (obsolete) Olfaction; sense of smell.

verb

1. (transitive) To add flair.
   Place your thumb on top of the shank and your bent index finger under the hair and pull the tying thread tight to flair it. 1988, Poul Jorgensen, Poul Jorgensen's Book of Fly Tying: A Guide to Flies for All Game Fish