nonchalance
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of nonchalance
From French, dating back to 1670–80; see origin at nonchalant, -ance
Explanation
Nonchalance is a casual lack of concern, a relaxed state without anxiety or enthusiasm. Like how you'd act if the girl you've had a secret crush on since grade school asks you to the prom. (Or maybe not.) It's hard to achieve nonchalance. If you're like most people, there's always going to be something that will rattle you. And you can forget about behaving with chalance, because chalance isn't a word. Sometimes you hear people say that so-and-so acted with "studied nonchalance," which means to sort of fake it. Oddly, the word's origins go back to the Latin calere, which is the same word as the root of calorie. A calorie is a unit of energy, and to act with nonchalance is to refrain from showing too much energy or excitement, so actually, it makes sense.
Vocabulary lists containing nonchalance
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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The Book Thief
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What makes him such an unusual comedic voice is that he has built his distinctive sensibility on a quality rare among stand-ups: Nonchalance.
From New York Times • Jul. 14, 2020
On another, signifying Nonchalance, were printed the words “Mi dimentico, mentre lo faccio,” which was translated as “I forget about it while I’m doing it.”
From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2018
Nonchalance should be a dirty word for Kyrgios at this stage after his suspension by the men’s tour at the end of 2016 for a lack of effort during a defeat in Shanghai.
From New York Times • Jan. 18, 2017
Nonchalance had vanished at the grim touch of actuality.
From Time Magazine Archive
Strange is it not that, oft her Dolour cloaking In hurried Puffs with Nonchalance provoking, No woman reads that apodictic Ode "How to be Happy Even Though You're Smoking?"
From The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jr. by Irwin, Wallace
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
