Souples

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Flexible and agile in movement or form
2. characterized by ease and gracefulness in motion or behavior
3. exhibiting the capacity to adapt and bend without breaking

Etymology: "Souples" is the plural of "souple," an adjective meaning graceful in motion. The French "souple" is the source of the English "supple," and the two are doublets, meaning they descend from the same Latin root and entered English by different routes. "Supple" arrived in English from French, while "souple" was borrowed directly from French as well, so the two forms sit side by side in the language. The word has another relative. In Middle Scots, the form "sowpill" was borrowed from Middle English "swepels," which came from "swepen," a verb meaning to sweep, combined with the suffix "-els." That makes "swipple," the Scots-derived doublet, a word that once meant something close to swinging or flexible, tied to the image of a thing that sweeps through the air.

Synonyms: flexible, supple, pliant, limber, elastic

Antonyms: rigid, stiff, inflexible, brittle, unyielding