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Examples

  • By the time he reached the Sixth Form, Peter had contrived to become the fashion-athlete, scholar, arbiter elegantiarum — nec pluribus impar.

    Unnatural Death Sayers, Dorothy L.Lord Peter 03 1988

  • The great man had hoped to form an integral part of the new household, to be the organizer of festivities, the 'arbiter elegantiarum'.

    The French Immortals Series — Complete Various

  • At a time when the "Satirist" was flinging its darts at the peculiarly vulnerable Duke of Brunswick, goading him into the writing of his pamphlets, and into that crushing retaliation whereby the paper was condemned in five thousand pounds damages, _Punch_ was perhaps the most moderate public censor and _arbiter elegantiarum_ amongst all those who used ridicule and irony as instruments of castigation; and indulgence has been the reward that he has reaped.

    The History of "Punch" M. H. Spielmann

  • Leicester, it should be borne in mind, was one of the most popular men in the college -- a sort of _arbiter elegantiarum_ in the best set.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 363, January, 1846 Various

  • In a short time, this gay voluptuary became so much a favourite at court, that nothing was agreeable but what was approved by Petronius and the authority which he acquired, by being umpire in whatever related to the economy of gay dissipation, procured him the title of Arbiter elegantiarum.

    De vita Caesarum Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus

  • What induces our metropolitan _literati_, those at least who are, or affect to be the _arbitri elegantiarum_ among them, to consider the

    The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire James Jennings

  • Neronian Rome the author of the Satyricon once had been, yet in his inmost heart he desired to be something more than a mere arbiter elegantiarum, to be consulted on the wearing of a jewel, or the knotting of a necktie, or the conduct of a cane.

    The Picture of Dorian Gray 1931

  • By the time he reached the Sixth Form, Peter had contrived to become the fashion -- athlete, scholar, arbiter elegantiarum -- nec pluribus impar.

    Clouds of Witness Sayers, Dorothy L. 1927

  • "So that Bardelys, known as the Magnificent; Bardelys the mirror of chivalry; Bardelys the arbiter elegantiarum of the Court of France, is no better, it seems, than a vulgar spy."

    Bardelys the Magnificent; being an account of the strange wooing pursued by the Sieur Marcel de Saint-Pol, marquis of Bardelys... Rafael Sabatini 1912

  • Caterina, there to pursue in peace the studies for which she had a taste, whilst her splendid, profligate brother became the ornament -- the arbiter elegantiarum -- of our court.

    The Shame of Motley: being the memoir of certain transactions in the life of Lazzaro Biancomonte, of Biancomonte, sometime fool of the court of Pesaro Rafael Sabatini 1912

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