# insouciant
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ɪnˈsuːsɪənt/
* (General American) IPA: /inˈsusiənt/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Hyphenation: in‧sou‧ciant

### Adjective

insouciant (comparative more insouciant, superlative most insouciant)
* Casually unconcerned; carefree, indifferent, nonchalant.
    Synonyms: blasé, uninterested; see also Thesaurus:apathetic, Thesaurus:carefree
    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, 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, 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, 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."
** 2017 November 16, Jo Ellison, “Help: the gym has turned us into slobs”, in Financial Times‎:As a fashion editor, I pay obsessive attention to my appearance. Even when I pretend to look insouciant, each look has been painfully considered. The right earrings, coordinating shoes, the careful symmetry of a well-balanced look — these are things that please me. The gym has crushed my sartorial ambitions.

#### Derived terms

* insouciantly

#### Related terms

* insouciance
* solicit
* sans-souci

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “insouciant”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

### Anagrams

* incautions

## French
### Etymology

From in- +‎ souciant, from soucier.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɛ̃.su.sjɑ̃/

### Adjective

insouciant (feminine insouciante, masculine plural insouciants, feminine plural insouciantes)
* carefree, without worries
* 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