insouciance
noun
aⁿ-süs-ˈyäⁿs
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Don't worry; be insouciant. Perhaps your mind will rest easier if we explain that English speakers learned insouciance (as well as the adjective insouciant) from the French around the early 1800s. The French word comes from a combination of the negative prefix in- and soucier, meaning "to trouble or disturb." Soucier, in turn, traces to sollicitus, the Latin word for "anxious." If it seems to you that sollicitus looks a lot like some other English words you've seen, you're on to something. That root also gave us solicit (which now means "to entreat" but which was once used to mean "to fill with concern or anxiety"), solicitude (meaning "uneasiness of mind"), and solicitous ("showing or expressing concern").
Synonyms
Examples of insouciance in a Sentence
Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 21 June 2024
For her, Gary constructs Ron, a dashing, swaggering fellow with devil-may-care insouciance and a hint of real danger.
—Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2024
The insouciance of this 1986 adaptation of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's musical is irresistible.
—Scott Hocker, theweek, 1 May 2024
The reason for this insouciance is clear: insecurity has become a racket.
—Jason K. Stearns, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
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Cite this Entry
“Insouciance.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insouciance. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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