stylish

Etymology

It is formed from English style + -ish,^[2][3][4][5] originally also spelled stilish.^[4] The noun is from Old French stile, also estile, from Latin stilus (“stake, writing instrument, manner of writing”),^[3] perhaps from the same source as the verb stick.^[3] The spelling with y in the noun was influenced by Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”), probably not directly related.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fashionable, conforming to an approved standard of taste: Merriam-Webster dates it to 1785,^[6] Dictionary.com to 1775–85,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 18th century.^[4] Etymonline gives 1795,^[3] and the OED, in an entry not fully revised, first quotes it from 1800, in E. S. Bowne's Girl's Life Eighty Years Ago.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective rests on the noun in its approving sense: style alone, meaning "good style", is on record by the 1580s,^[3] and Etymonline remarks that "good" is understood in stylish.^[3] The OED's first sense describes people, their looks or manners, and also dress or equipage, as noticeable for following the fashionable standard of elegance.^[2] From 1892 it records looser uses, having style in other senses of the noun.^[2] Modern dictionaries accordingly distinguish a general sense, showing a good sense of style, from the narrower "fashionably elegant".^[7][8] The derivative stylishness dates from the late 18th century, and stylishly from the late 19th.^[4] Dictionary.com warns against confusion with stylistic.^[5]

Timeline

• 1785 – fashionable, conforming to approved taste.^[6] The OED's first quotation is from 1800.^[2]
• late 18th century – the noun stylishness.^[4]
• 1892 – having style in other senses of the noun.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fashionably elegant; following the current fashion: a stylish new coat.^{[9][6][10][7]}
2. Having or showing a good sense of style, as in a performance: a stylish production of the play.^[7][8][2]

Word family

• stylishly
• stylishness
• superstylish
• unstylish

Related words

• style
• stylist
• stylus
• stylistic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt