suave

suave, *urbane, diplomatic, bland, smooth, politic as applied to persons, their demeanor, and their utterances can mean conspicuously and ingratiatingly tactful and well- mannered. These words at times can convey so strong a suggestion of insincerity or of a surface manner that their distinctive implications are obscured. It is chiefly in their nonderogatory use that essential differences in meaning are apparent.

Suave suggests qualities that are or have the appearance of being acquired through discipline and training and that encourage or are intended to encourage easy and frictionless intercourse with others. Negatively, it suggests the absence of everything that may offend or repel; positively, it suggests such qualities as affability without fulsomeness, politeness without stiffness, and persuasiveness without evident desire to force one's opinion on others

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what gentle, suave, courteous tones!— Jackson

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a slight disturbance of his ordinary suave and well-bred equanimity— Lytton

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they could be as suave in advancing their bromides as we could be gauche in establishing our originalities— J. M. Brown

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Urbane implies a high degree of cultivation, poise, and wide social experience; it also commonly suggests an ingrained or inbred courtesy which makes for pleasant and agreeable intercourse among all kinds of men regardless of their social or intellectual standing

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writes with fluent charm, in the easy, urbane, richly allusive manner of an Oxford and Cambridge savant— Wecter

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men of delicate fancy, urbane instinct and aristocratic manner—in brief, superior men—in brief, gentry— Mencken

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Since urbanity and an ability to deal with difficult or ticklish situations with great tact are theoretically the qualities of the typical diplomat, the adjective diplomatic, when used in reference to nondiplomats, carries these implications, often adding in addition a hint of artfulness in gaining one's own ends

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Gabrielle's busy, active, diplomatic managing of the party— E. E. Hale

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the diplomatic manner ... of a government official whose career depended on politeness to his equals and deference to his superiors— Maclnnes

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I have grown to believe that the one thing worth aiming at is simplicity of heart and life; that one's relations with others should be direct and not diplomatic— Benson

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Bland is negative as well as positive in its implications, for it usually implies the absence of irritating qualities as strongly as it suggests serenity, mildness, and gentility. Nevertheless, in spite of this vagueness, the term often carries a hint of benignity or the appearance of it and usually directly implies an ingratiating pleasantness

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his manners were gentle, complying, and bland— Goldsmith

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he's simply a distinguished-looking old cleric with a sweet smile and a white tie: he's just honorable and bland and as cold as ice— Santayana

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most of the time he sat behind a look of bland absorption, now and then permitting himself an inscrutable smile— Hervey

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Smooth differs from bland chiefly in being more positive in its implications and in being more consistently derogatory. Sometimes it stresses suavity, often an assumed suavity

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the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart— Ps 55:21

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At other times it carries even a stronger implication of tactfulness and craft than diplomatic

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I was not even my parents' son in 1928 but a devilishly smooth imposter, awaiting their slightest blunder ... to assert my true identity— Salinger

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the sales talk of our government for the second one was a smooth and professional job— Edmund Wilson

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Politic (see also EXPEDIENT) when applied to persons implies both shrewdness and tact; the term usually suggests the ability to gain one's ends or to avoid friction through ingratiating means or diplomatic methods. It varies considerably, however, in its implication of artfulness, sometimes connoting cunning or craft and sometimes little more than just the right degree of suavity

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I ... am an attendant lord . . . deferential, glad to be of use, politic, cautious, and meticulous— T. S. Eliot

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the mayors and corporations as a rule guided their cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness— Edwin Benson

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Analogous words: *gracious, cordial, affable, genial, sociable: courteous, courtly, polite (see CIVIL): *fulsome, unctuous, slick

Antonyms: bluff