What does urbane (from Daisy Miller) mean?
If you've ever met someone who is polite and courteous in a smooth, polished way, you can say he is refined or urbane. In Henry James's Daisy Miller, Daisy is a pretty, 19th-century American girl who shocks the more formalized European society by her spontaneous acts. Here, Daisy takes a walk with two men:
[Daisy] strolled along with one of them on each side of her; Mr. Giovanelli, who spoke English very cleverly . . . addressed her a great deal of very polite nonsense; he was extremely urbane . . .