Urbane means smooth, polished and confident in company. An urbane host, urbane and witty, urbane manners.
It is used almost only of men and carries a whiff of another era. It is the same word as urban, split off in spelling and sense, from the old idea that town manners were the polished ones.
1adjectiveurbaneSmooth, polished and confident in company.
“The urbane diplomat charmed every guest with his wit and perfect manners.”
urbane is a quality.
A variant of urban, from Latin urbanus, of the city, which also meant refined.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰerdʰ- — to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence
Latin
urbānus — of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated
Middle French
urbain — belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane
English, today
urbane
Built from
A variant of urban ane (a variant of -an). Urban is borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”), from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus. Compare typologically civil, courteous.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA