The story
Baldassare Castiglione coined it in The Book of the Courtier, 1528: a courtier should hide all his art and seem to act without effort. Menswear writers revived it for the loose tie and the unbuttoned cuff. English has nonchalance.
sprezzatura
spret-sah-TOO-rah[sprettsaˈtuːra]
studied carelessness that hides the effort — nonchalance
Closest in English: nonchalance, effortlessness, insouciance. None of them covers it.
How it went in the game
Contains the answers. If you want to play the word yourself first, leave this closed.
- Which language is it from?Italian
- When did it enter Italian?In a 1528 book on court manners
- Where would you hear it?A tie knotted a little loose on purpose
- What does it mean?Making hard work look like nothing
How it went
Harder than most words so far.