Dandy

How to spell dandy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dandy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dandy mean?

1. nounA man who places great importance on a stylish and elegant appearance.
2. adjectiveExcellent, splendid, or very satisfactory; often used informally.

Dandy in a sentence

• noun

  The old portrait showed a dandy in a velvet coat and silk cravat.

• adjective

  After the repair the engine ran in dandy condition.

• noun

  He dressed like a dandy, polishing his shoes every single morning.

• adjective

  A sturdy little knife like this is a dandy tool for camping.

Where does dandy come from?

Language of origin: Other

Dandy first appears in English in the late 1700s, on the Scottish border, as a nickname for a man who paid extravagant attention to his clothes and grooming. The most widely accepted explanation traces it to Dandy, a familiar pet form of the personal name Andrew, much as Jack stands in for John; the leap from a man's name to a label for a fashionable fop is the part that remains a little hazy. By the early 1800s the word had crossed firmly into London usage and was attached to figures like Beau Brummell, the era's most celebrated dresser. From the showy noun grew a breezy adjective meaning first-rate or splendid, popularised in nineteenth-century American speech and surviving today in the phrase 'fine and dandy'. Because the spelling simply doubles a name-like root and adds a plain -y, the only real trap is remembering the single d in the middle rather than guessing at a double consonant.

How the word is built

• dand- (likely from Dandy, a pet form of the name Andrew)
• -y (noun/adjective suffix)