natty
nounEtymology Clipping of natural + -y.
natty
adjUK /ˈnæti/
Etymology Originally slang, perhaps related to natural.
1
Informal Smart and fashionable.
- “They’d look very natty, arm-in-crook together, and their best clothes on, whether or no, if he’s at all the well-favoured fellow he used to be.”1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native:
- 'One of our witnesses has already had the misfortune to be rather badly run down while cycling, and I've had a natty-looking box of chocolates by post from an "unknown friend" myself,' replied the inspector.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
2 more examples
- Anyway, while the creepy-video thing is under way there are also some scenes of Pullman looking very natty and East Village in all-black and jamming on his tenor sax in front of a packed dance floor (only in a David Lynch movie would people dance ecstatically to abstract jazz), […]1997, David Foster Wallace, “David Lynch keeps his head”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:
- A natty dresser, especially by congressional standards, Mr. Curtis has turned his penchant for bright socks into an ice-breaker that he says helps constituents feel comfortable in approaching him.2025 January 28, Cameron Joseph, “Meet Mitt Romney’s replacement – who could make or break the Trump agenda”, in The Christian Science Monitor: