flair

[flair] /flɛər/
noun
1.
a natural talent, aptitude, or ability; bent; knack:
a flair for rhyming.
2.
smartness of style, manner, etc.:
Their window display has absolutely no flair at all.
Synonyms: chic, dash, panache, verve; oomph, pizazz.
3.
keen, intuitive perception or discernment:
We want a casting director with a real flair for finding dramatic talent.
4.
Hunting. scent; sense of smell.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English < French, Old French: scent, noun derivative of flairier to reek ≪ Vulgar Latin *flāgrāre, dissimilated variant of Latin frāgrāre. See fragrant
Can be confused
flair, flare.
Examples from the web for flair
  • He designs using traditional techniques with a modern flair.
  • The successful candidate will have a flair for strategic thinking as it applies to presentation of the university.
  • Get that movie for the original source of flash over substance as a defining mantra of presentational flair.
  • Our department chair has a flair for brightly coloured corduroy and scarves.
  • For the spacecraft with truly modern flair, an ion thruster is the only way to go.
  • To uncover their tales, you need a storyteller with an expert's knowledge and a writer's flair.
  • Butterfly wings don't use traditional pigment for their flair.
  • Human life itself has more than a little poetic flair.
  • Ah, if only all scientists could write with such poetic flair.
  • He's got an amazing flair for engaging presentations.
British Dictionary definitions for flair

flair1

/flɛə/
noun
1.
natural ability; talent; aptitude
2.
instinctive discernment; perceptiveness
3.
stylishness or elegance; dash: to dress with flair
4.
(hunting, rare)
  1. the scent left by quarry
  2. the sense of smell of a hound
Word Origin
C19: from French, literally: sense of smell, from Old French: scent, from flairier to give off a smell, ultimately from Latin frāgrāre to smell sweet; see fragrant

flair2

/flIr/
noun
1.
a Scot word for floor
Word Origin and History for flair
n.

mid-14c., "an odor," from Old French flair "odor or scent," from flairer "to smell," from Vulgar Latin *flagrare, dissimilated from Latin fragrare "emit (a sweet) odor" (see fragrant). Sense of "special aptitude" is American English, 1925, perhaps from notion of a hound's ability to track scent.

flair in Technology

language
An early system on the IBM 650.
[Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)].
(1995-03-17)