Chic is in the Eye of the Beholder

​Much like the word beauty, the word chic in the English language carries both the inference of beauty, and the consideration of style in modern cultures around the globe today.

The meaning of chic is somewhat ambiguous in that much like beautiful things, chic things can be nearly anything even just one person considers up-to-date and stylish in our modern world today. However, chic, like beauty, is up to the person observing it. Different interpretations of the term “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” include the underlying meaning that different people will find different things beautiful and that those differences of opinion don't matter all that much when it comes right down to it.

An unknown writer put down these words during the 3rd century BC in ancient Greece:’ The meaning of any beautiful created thing is at least as much in the soul of him who looks at it, as it was in his soul who wrought it. Nay, it is rather the beholder who lends to the beautiful thing its myriad meanings, and makes it marvelous for us, and sets it in some new relation to the age, so that it becomes a vital portion of our lives, and a symbol of what we pray for, or perhaps, of what, having prayed for, we fear that we may receive.’ After reading that passage twice it would be safe to assume that the perception of beauty is subjective, and the same applies to anything, or anyone considered “chic.”

The famous author Shakespeare expressed a similar interpretation of beautiful and stylish things in Love's Labours Lost, written in 1588 when he said: “Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise, Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues.” Likewise, Benjamin Franklin weighed in on the subject in 1741 in Poor Richard's Almanack when he wrote: “Beauty, like supreme dominion, Is but supported by opinion.”

The historical interpretations of beauty definitely apply anything that might be classified as chic today, as the two are often one and the same when it comes to common language and common opinions. The actual word “chic” is thought to be derived from classic French, or perhaps it came from the German word “schick” that today still means skill, fitness, and elegance. Regardless of whether chic is French or German in origin, the word was mostly considered to be French until the 1800's when it came into wide use as an English word that carried the meaning of “smart or stylish.” Today, the word chic in the English language still carries both the inference of beauty, and the consideration of style. Chic will still carry that meaning into the future until someone comes up with a new or better interpretation that is more widely utilized, an unlikely scenario at the very least.