insouciant
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈsuːsɪənt/
ipa: /inˈsusiənt/
Forms: form: more insouciant
form: most insouciant
Etymology: From French insouciant, from in- (“not”, prefix) + souciant (“worrying”), 1828.
Senses: examples: text: an insouciant gesture
text: "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."
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1905, William Somerset Maugham, chapter XXXVIII, in The Land of the Blessed Virgin: Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 215:
text: 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!
ref: 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:
text: […] [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."
ref: 2004 April 26, Richard Schickel, “Sean Penn: Necessary Actor”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2008:
text: 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.
ref: 2017 November 16, Jo Ellison, “Help: the gym has turned us into slobs”, in Financial Times:
synonyms: word: blasé
word: uninterested
word: adiaphroistic
word: apathetic
word: apathistical
word: blasé
word: deaf
word: cool
word: shiftless
word: dispassionate
word: dull
word: enervated
word: gallionic
word: halfhearted
word: heartless
word: impassive
word: ineffervescible
word: insouciant
word: indifferent
word: insensible
word: jaded
word: languid
word: languorous
word: Laodicean
word: lethargic
word: listless
word: lackadaisical
word: lotophagous
word: lukewarm
word: mopey
word: nonchalant
word: nonplussed
word: phlegmatic
word: pococurante
word: spiritless
word: supine
word: tepid
word: torpid
word: torpedinous
word: unaroused
word: uncaring
word: unconcerned
word: unenthusiastic
word: unimpressible
word: uninterested
word: unlively
word: unmoved
word: untouched
word: unzealous
word: world-weary
word: airy
word: at ease
word: at peace
word: carefree
word: careless
word: casual
word: chill
word: cool
word: devil-may-care
word: easy-breezy
word: easygoing
word: happy-go-lucky
word: indifferent
word: insouciant
word: laid-back
word: leisurely
word: lighthearted
word: loose
word: mellow
word: nonchalant
word: pococurante
word: relaxed
word: serene
word: solute
word: tranquil
word: unanxious
word: unbothered
word: unconcerned
word: undisturbed
word: unruffled
word: untroubled
word: unworried
word: wanton
glosses: Casually unconcerned; carefree, indifferent, nonchalant.
Derived terms: insouciantly
Related terms: insouciance
solicit
sans-souci