The Oxford English Dictionary

Sometimes the need to be alone with one's dictionary is primal. The doors to the study are closed but the curtains are open; the investigation of the word, 'elegant' can begin.

The type is tiny, though elegant; the looking glass that came with the dictionary so long ago has been lost in a move two or three houses in the past and, as it is inelegant to squint, I bring the dictionary close to my eyes.

I see that grace is commonplace to the concept of elegance, as is refinement of composition; appropriate ingenuity, tastefulness of adornment, harmonious simplicity are phrases the OED uses when defining the word, 'elegant.'

The word elegant applies to men and women–and to things made by men and women such as furniture, pottery, and gourmet meals–but not to computer programs, as I said to Spencer yesterday, mistakenly. The OED clearly states on page 843 that the word elegant applies to "scientific processes, contrivances etc.: 'Neat', pleasing by ingenious simplicity and effectiveness."

So I am wrong about the word, 'elegant', as I was wrong to not take better care of my OED, moving it around from place to place since 1971, allowing some of the pages to become crumpled. Yes I was wrong, but what an old friend words have since become to me!