Monday, March 25, 2013

insouciance

insouciance \in-SOO-see-uhns; Fr. an-soo-SYAHNS\, noun:

the quality of being insouciant; lack of care or concern; indifference.

He kept dropping an Indian club and picking it up with forced and scowling insouciance.
-- John Banville, Eclipse, 2007
Gleason gave me a warning or two about the possible dangers into which my insouciance might yet lead me.
-- Gore Vidal, Death in the Fifth Position, 1952

The Latin root sollicitaire coupled with the negating prefix in- literally means "to not disturb or agitate." This adjective entered English in the nineteenth century, shortly after the noun form insouciance started being used by English speakers.

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