svelte
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n svelte • \\SVELT\\ • adjective
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Someone described as svelte is considered slender or thin in an attractive or graceful way. Svelte can also be used to describe something sleek, such as a vehicle or an article of clothing.
\n\n// The svelte dancer seemed to float across the stage.
\n\n\n \n \n\n Examples:
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\u201cThere\u2019s more plastic than some would prefer, but it\u2019s otherwise an attractive, functional cockpit with comfy seats and room enough for three adults in the rear, as long as all are relatively svelte.\u201d \u2014 Josh Max, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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In Death on the Rocks, a 2013 mystery novel by Deryn Lake, the hero John Rawlings is described as having \u201csvelte eyebrows\u201d (he raises them also in 1995\u2019s Death at the Beggar\u2019s Opera). Lake\u2019s oeuvre notwithstanding, svelte is not an adjective commonly applied to eyebrows, though it\u2019s perfectly appropriate to do so\u2014one of the word\u2019s meanings is \u201csleek,\u201d and it is often used to describe such disparate things as gowns and sports cars having clean lines. But \u201csvelte eyebrows\u201d also makes etymological sense; svelte came to English (by way of French) from the Italian adjective svelto, which itself comes from the verb svellere, meaning \u201cto pluck out.\u201d Since its debut in English in the early 19th century, however, svelte has more often been used with its original meaning to describe a person\u2019s body\u2014not just the tufts of hair above their eyes\u2014as slender, graceful, or lithe.
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