neat [LME] Neat came into English via French net, from Latin nitidus, meaning ‘bright, shiny, glossy’. It was first used in a sense quite similar to its main modern meaning, but with a greater emphasis on the handsome appearance of the thing described. The sense ‘undiluted’, as in ‘neat whisky’, derives from the old use ‘free from impurities, clean’, first found in the late 15th century. Net [ME] ‘not subject to any further deduction’ was originally a variant of neat with the same meanings. The price sense developed in Late Middle English. The slang sense ‘excellent’ is American, from the beginning of the 19th century.