insouciant

insouciant

English

WOTD – 16 August 2018

Etymology

From French insouciant, from in- (“not”, prefix) + souciant (“worrying”), 1828.[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsuːsɪənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /inˈsusiənt/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧sou‧ciant

Adjective

insouciant (comparative more insouciant, superlative most insouciant)

1. Casually unconcerned; carefree, indifferent, nonchalant.

   an insouciant gesture

   • 1834, [Theresa Lewis], chapter XII, in Countess of Morley [Frances Talbot Parker], editor, Dacre: A Novel. [...] In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, […], OCLC 230671148, page 220:

     "I am quite serious in saying that your loss must and would be felt; but I verily believe," added she, after a moment's hesitation, "that you are so insouciant yourself, that you cannot believe that every body else is not equally indifferent."

   • 1905, William Somerset Maugham, chapter XXXVIII, in The Land of the Blessed Virgin: Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia, London: William Heinemann, OCLC 962027576, page 215:

     It was there [Cadiz, Spain] that on Sunday I had seen the populace disport itself, and it was full of life then, gay and insouciant.

   • 1913 August, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “The Christmas Harp”, in The Golden Road, Boston, Mass.: The Page Company, published April 1926, OCLC 150594789, pages 31–32:

     When we left the Marr house, he [Peter] had boldly said to Felicity, "May I see you home?" And Felicity, much to our amazement, had taken his arm and marched off with him. […] As for me, I was consumed by a secret and burning desire to ask the Story Girl if I might see her home; but I could not screw my courage to the sticking point. How I envied Peter his easy, insouciant manner!

   • 2004 April 26, Richard Schickel, “Sean Penn: Necessary Actor”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 6 March 2008:

     […] [Jack] Nicholson turned to an assistant, bummed a cigarette, flashed one of his wolfish, insouciant grins and said, "We all have our little secrets, Seany."

Derived terms

• insouciantly

Related terms

• insouciance
• solicit
• sans-souci

Translations

casually unconcerned — See also translations at carefree,‎ nonchalant

Czech: bezstarostný m Dutch: nonchalant (nl) French: insouciant (fr) f Georgian: უდარდელი (udardeli) Greek: αμέριμνος (el) m (amérimnos), αμέριμνη f (amérimni), αμέριμνο n (amérimno) Manx: neuchurrymagh Polish: niefrasobliwy Portuguese: despreocupado (pt) Russian: беззабо́тный (ru) m (bezzabótnyj), безразли́чный (ru) m (bezrazlíčnyj) Turkish: dinç (tr)

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “insouciant”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• incautions

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French

Etymology

in- +‎ souciant, from soucier.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.su.sjɑ̃/

Adjective

insouciant (feminine insouciante, masculine plural insouciants, feminine plural insouciantes)

1. carefree, without worries
2. uncaring

   Synonym: (more formal) insoucieux

Derived terms

• insouciance

Related terms

• sans-souci

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• continuais