PIE *dhebから、厚い、固定された、派生的に勇敢な、強い、さらに肯定的な意味合いを持ち、安定した、端正で美しい男性を表す。
英語の語源
dapper
dapper: [15] Modern English dapper connotes neatness, alertness, and liveliness, but its etymological significance as revealed by distant relatives such as Old High German tapfar ‘heavy’, Old Prussian debīkan ‘large’, and Old Slavic debelu ‘thick’, is ‘heavy’. The notion of ‘weightiness’ spread to ‘firmness, endurance in battle’, and hence ‘courage’ (German tapfer and Dutch dapper both mean ‘brave’). English acquired the word, with an apparently ironical change of meaning, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German dapper ‘heavy, stout, bold’.
dapper (adj.)
mid-15c., "elegant," from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German dapper "bold, strong, sturdy," later "quick, nimble," from Proto-Germanic *dapraz, perhaps with ironical shift of meaning (cognates: Old High German tapfar "heavy," German tapfer "brave"), from PIE root *dheb- "dense, firm, compressed."
例文
1. He is a dapper little salesman in a business suit.
彼はスーツを着た小柄で精悍なセールスマンだ。
2.He was a dapper little Irishman，very vain，homely as a monkey.
彼は短くて精鋭なアイルランド人で、とても自負していて、猿のように醜い。
3.His manner was aristocratic，his movements dapper and suave.
彼は意気軒昂で、上品で、振る舞いがスマートである。
4.The once dapper ，cheerful agent had become seedy looking and bitter.
昔の風格があり、艶やかなマネージャーは、今日は衣のぼろぼろで、頭がボサボサで汚れている人になった。
5.His dapper self-confidence seemed impenetrable to such hints.