insouciance

insouciance

English

Etymology

From French insouciance, from in- (“not”) + souciant (“worrying”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsuːsi.əns/

• Audio (southern England)

  (file)

Noun

insouciance (countable and uncountable, plural insouciances)

1. Carelessness, heedlessness, indifference, or casual unconcern.
   • 1995 May 21, Steven Levy, “The Unabomber and David Gelernter”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     So Gelernter, with an insouciance he now regrets, also chose a Lovelace as a namesake—Linda, the lead actress in "Deep Throat."

2. Nonchalance.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:apathy

Translations

carelessness, heedlessness, indifference, or casual unconcern

German: Sorglosigkeit (de) f, Unbesorgtheit (de) f, Unbekümmertheit (de) f Romanian: impasibilitate (ro) f, nepăsare (ro) f, indiferență (ro) f Russian: безразли́чие (ru) n (bezrazlíčije)

nonchalance

German: Lässigkeit (de) f, Unbekümmertheit (de) f, Zwanglosigkeit f, Nonchalance (de) f Romanian: nonșalanță (ro) f, degajare (ro) f, dezinvoltură (ro) f Russian: беззабо́тность (ru) f (bezzabótnostʹ)

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French

Etymology

insouciant +‎ -ance

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.su.sjɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

insouciance f (plural insouciances)

1. insouciance, unconcern; carelessness, recklessness

Further reading

• “insouciance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.