Crossword Dictionary
SWANKy
swank, swanky - a
imposingly fashionable and elegant; "a swank apartment"
Synonyms
classy, deluxe, fancy, fashionable, luxurious, posh, ritzy, splashy, stylish, sumptuous, swank, trendy
Examples
Whether you're going to the hottest nightclub, dinner at a swanky restaurant, bowling or an intimate house party, embrace 80s fashion in a big way.
Loaded with personality and decked out in swanky collars, these lovable animal pals come with leashes that fit around a Groovy Girl wrist.
But as scantily-clad groupies guzzled champagne, fellow band Kobai hit the sauce and left the swanky suite coated in the sticky mess.
Etymology
"imposing, stylish," 1842, from swank + -y (2). Related: swankiness.
swank (adj.)
"stylish, classy, posh," 1913, from earlier noun or verb; "A midland and s.w. dial. word taken into general slang use at the beginning of the 20th cent." [OED]; compare swank (n.) "ostentatious behavior," noted in 1854 as a Northampton word; swank (v.), from 1809 as "to strut, behave ostentatiously." Perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *swank-, from PIE *sweng(w)-, a Germanic root meaning "to swing, turn, toss" (source also of Middle High German swanken "to sway, totter, turn, swing," Old High German swingan "to swing;" see swing (v.)). Perhaps the notion is of "swinging" the body ostentatiously (compare swagger).
-y (2)
adjective suffix, "full of or characterized by," from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga- (source also of Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs), from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Originally added to nouns in Old English; used from 13c. with verbs, and by 15c. even with other adjectives (for example crispy). Adjectives such as hugy, vasty are artificial words that exist for the sake of poetical metrics.