Word of the Day
: August 15, 2018nonchalant
playWhat It Means
: having an air of easy unconcern or indifference
nonchalant in Context
"After the doors closed, the man … grabbed onto the train from the outside. And off he went, surfing through the subway tunnel while some commuters … rode unsuspecting inside, according to a video captured by another subway rider…. The video … shows the man holding on in a calm, nonchalant manner, even letting down one of his arms." — Samantha Schmidt, The Washington Post, 12 July 2018
"By the time of [Jennifer] Lawrence's arrival, the teenage girl sitting next to me—a Hunger Games obsessive—was completely starstruck, gawping and garbling. Obviously, I was the nonchalant journalist, unfazed by fame and all that nonsense." — The London Evening Standard, 20 Jan. 2014
Did You Know?
Since nonchalant ultimately comes from words meaning "not" and "be warm," it's no surprise that the word is all about keeping one's cool. The French word nonchalant, which strolled into English in the 1700s, has essentially held the same meaning in English as in French. It was derived from the Old French verb nonchaloir ("to disregard") and can be traced back to Latin non ("not") and calēre," meaning "to be warm." Unconcerned is one synonym of nonchalant, along with casual, complacent, and insouciant.
