eleganter

Eleganter is the comparative form of the German adjective elegant. It is used to compare two things in terms of elegance, as in Dieses Kleid ist eleganter als jenes. It can appear in attributive position before a noun, or as an adverb modifying a verb, as in Sie kleidet sich eleganter, oder Eine elegantere Lösung wäre besser.

Etymology and background: The adjective elegant comes from the French élégant, from Latin elegans or elegantis. German speakers began using the term in the early modern period, adopting and adapting the word from French. The comparative form is built with the suffix -er, yielding eleganter, while the superlative is der/ein/das eleganteste or am elegantesten.

Usage notes: In routine German, eleganter is common in everyday speech and in writing, especially in contexts such as fashion, design, architecture, and critiques of style. The inflected forms change with gender, case, and definiteness; for example, eine elegantere Lösung (a more elegant solution) or dieser Mann ist eleganter als jener (this man is more elegant than that one). In English, the corresponding construction is more often expressed as more elegant rather than eleganter, and the term is rarely used outside Germanic contexts. Some other languages, such as Dutch, also use a similar form (eleganter) for the comparative.

Related forms: Positive form elegant, superlative eleganteste, noun form Eleganz (elegance). See also related terms in style and aesthetics.

See also: Elegance, Elegant, Eleganz, Comparative adjectives in German.