Aussie dictionary makes sense, hev. I might refer to a terrier as being "dapper" but not a St Bernard! (great slobbery things that they are - but then, even a greyhound wouldn't be "dapper" really, 'coz it's too BIG - size does count! with reference to "dapper," anyway)

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

I think of dapper as suit and tie, hair nicely combed..and sophisticated in speech and manner

Likewise, Carolyn (pleased to meet you by the way )
Interesting that the meaning appears to have carried all over the world so consistently, as I'd always thought the term fairly Britlish.

We'd talk about a "dapper gent" - always being someone wearing a suit (or well-matched jacket and trousers) and tie. Definitely an exquisite dress sense; also an implication of small & neat (ties in with Hev's dictionary definition).

You don't get young men referred to as "dapper" much. Suppose very few young men wear suits all the time, which is requisite of the label. Even older men have generally become more laid-back these days. Suppose dapper gents are a dying breed.

Hi all!
I've used the word dapper for a very specific type of man, any age, similar to what's been said but to be dappper he must also have a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain verve, or simply a man who looks well put together, has pride in his appearance, perhaps a bit of a rogue with a twinkle in his eye.
Strange but I've never used the word in reference to a tall man (over six foot.) Dapper men, to me, are always shorter than average up to medium height.
In any case when I use it I always mean it as a compliment!

You don't get young men referred to as "dapper" much.
This confirms my hunch that "dapper" is something like the antipode to "cool"

<<antipode to 'cool'>>

But then, if you're talking geography, the antipode to cool is cool--I use "dapper' often enough, if a bit more broadly then the the rest. That is, I probably probably not say it of a man in *any* suit. However, a gangster might be dapper, and not thereby uncool.

dapper - c.1440, from M.Du. or M.L.G. dapper
"bold, strong, sturdy," from P.Gmc. *dapraz;
perhaps with ironical shift of meaning.

. AWAD DICTIONEXTRAORDINARY

dapper: a man dressed in a certain kind of suit.
usage -Hey, look at that dapper gangster, he is most defiantly not thereby uncool.
source - Inselpeter.

dapper: the antipode to cool.
cool: the americanized mind of wsieber.


dapper: A complimentary description of a well dressed short frenchman. A well dressed tall frenchman is called something else.
source - WOW

dapper: chiefly british. Used primarily by those who use the words "exquisite" and "requisite" to describe nattily dressed older men.
usage - Say what you will, but rolls there bye one helluva exquisite dapper fishonabike.
source - Fishonabike.

dapper: 1. small and active. 2. a type of dog.
usage - Look Henry, have you ever seen such dapper?
No Henry, that big slobbery thing is the owner, I'm talking about his feisty little dog, you big dummy!
source - modestgoddest.

dapper: Australian. The masculine form is used as an male insult and means something wee and small. When directed to the female it means pretty, elegant.
source - HEV


dapper: Gangsterspeak amer. (when referring to the Mafia don as dapper, always quickly add that you were alluding to definition #2, the one that doesn't mean "shorty".
source - wwh

dapper: (see milum) otherwise obsolete in central Alabama. Formally used for scalawags and carpetbaggers of which the modern term is Aluminum Siding Salesman.
source - chemeng1992

dapper:
A word that boronia uses now and then (she used it in the past month, in fact, in describing her friend Donnie who is a dandy but no one would ever describe him as elegant).
source - boronia

So what do you think Simon&Garfunkle meant in their song:

I'm dapper and drowsy and ready for sleep.
Let the morning tern drop all it's petals on me.
Life I love you
All is Groovy


Ooops, I've just been told that they say "DAPPLED" and drowsy. Sorry. Mind you, what on earth does dappled mean?

"Dappled" as in sunlight. So: quiet, calm, receptive to beauty.

"Dapper"--one who skips flat stones on water.

re:"Dappled" as in sunlight

i use this word to describe the sun beams that dance and dart between the leaves of my giant oak trees. the slightest breeze sets them silently dancing on the grass and flowers, and brings the butterflies, and ladybugs to the dance floor of the garden, moving gracefully to soft music of the coral bells, and the bellflowers. sometimes i sit so still, i can hear the worms bend the blades of grass, as the leave their castings, but the music of the flowers still eludes my ears. i can only imagine it.

[music, maestro] "I'm dapper and drowsy and ready for sleep." [/music]
what on earth does dappled mean?

Per the dictionary dappled means "spotted; mottled (probably from Old Norse depill, spot, splash, diminutive of dapi, pool."

The most common usage (according to a quick scan of google) is the horse's coat having mottled or spootted markings, particularly the dapple-gray. "Dappled sunlight", a less-common phrase, would be for example sunlight through tree leaves: though indeed restfully beautiful, that beauty is not the inherent meaning of "dappled".

From which it would seem that the Simon & Garfunkel lyric uses the word "dappled" improperly, or perhaps one should say "with poetic license".

Dear Keiva: You are not welcome to post in AWADtalk.

go away keiva. you are not wanted here.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary & Thesaurus

Main Entry: dap.per
Pronunciation: 'da-p&r
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English dapyr, from Middle Dutch dapper quick, strong; akin to Old High German tapfar heavy, Old Church Slavonic debelu thick
Date: 15th century
1 a : neat and trim in appearance b : excessively spruce and stylish
2 : alert and lively in movement and manners
- dap.per.ly adverb
- dap.per.ness noun

-I don't know if Merriam-Webster's gets any respect around here ;¬)
not necessarily anything new, but it's the way I've always used the word. Hercule Poirot is dapper.

and I've always loved the line "I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep", crafted with a great melody...

I've always loved the line "I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep", crafted with a great melody

Couldn't agree more, etaoin. Talk about getting great value out of one (admittedly excellent) guitar phrase.

Full lyrics at:
http://www.geocities.com/just_4_u333/simonandgarfunkel.html#The59thStreetBridgeSong
for those interested.

Just in passing - off the top of me head I can only think of one song that repeats the same chord sequence absolutely all the way through, being With or Without You. And I can't think of any song that repeats exactly the same picked guitar part. 'riff' isn't the right word here, I think. Then again... I feel a new thread coming on!

Fisk

P.S. Another absolute blinder, Milo - brightened my day again

oh boy, now I'm going to have to start listening to everything a lot closer... though don't most U2 songs pretty much cycle through the same chords? not that they don't do that exceedingly well...

Dub-Dub, this is your expertise. But:

----------------------------------
Don't a fair number of pop songs (particularly songs from the '50's and 60's, such as Teen Angel and Heart and Soul) use solely the sequence
C -- Aminor -- F -- G (or G7)? or more generally, I -- VI-minor -- IV -- V (or V7)?

----------------------------------
Isn't almost all blues music a repeated 12-measure progression:
C -- C -- C -- C / F -- F -- C -- C / G7 -- F -- C -- C,
in whatever key? (some songs use F of the second measure)

----------------------------------
And taking music back a bit farther, am I right in thinking that Pachibel's Canon (one of my personal favs) is an 8-chord progression, repeated and developed?

Keiva: you are very much unwanted anywhere on AWADtalk.

haven't you noticed? not only doesn't WW respond to your posts, she withdraws them when you refer to them..

This is just keiva trying to pretend WW is his friend...
just an other trick.
See
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=73423

Go away Keiva, you are not wanted here

dapper: A complimentary description of a well dressed short frenchman. A well dressed tall frenchman is called something else.
source - WOW

Where did that frenchman come from?
I never mentioned a frenchman.
Oh, he's a chef and here to cook dinner.
OK!
sorry for the confusion.

dapper: A complimentary description of a well dressed short frenchman. A well dressed tall frenchman is called something else.
source - WOW

Where did that frenchman come from?
I never mentioned a frenchman.
Oh, he's a chef and here to cook dinner.
OK!
sorry for the confusion.

It occurred to me that the old word "dapper" is hardly encountered anymore. Did anybody find it in recent use?

Oddly, I hear it used in speech yesterday, referring to "an extremely short lawyer, dapper and bald-headed, always wearing a trademark bow tie." The reference was not complimentary.

(It was present once in the whole AWAD forum, and then only in a quoted poem).

Indeed, even that prior AWAD reference uses dapper in a different sense. It referred to Santa Claus and meant (per bartleby) "lively and alert".
http://www.bartleby.com/61/65/D0026500.html

.....His smile was so dapper, his bright eyes so gleaming.
.....And was that a joint in his hand? Or me dreaming?
.....But when I caught on to the look in his eye
.....I knew it was Santa himself, flying high.

Keiva:You were banned for starting and continuing a flame war.
You got reiinstated by extortion. You are contemptible.

Dapper A little, nimble, spruce young clerk in Ben Jonson's Alchemist.
(from the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable)