insouciance

English

Etymology

From French insouciance, from in- (“not”) + souciant (“worrying”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsuːsi.əns/

• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

insouciance (countable and uncountable, plural insouciances)

1. Carelessness, heedlessness, indifference, or casual unconcern.
   • 1995 May 21, Steven Levy, “The Unabomber and David Gelernter”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     So Gelernter, with an insouciance he now regrets, also chose a Lovelace as a namesake—Linda, the lead actress in "Deep Throat."

2. Nonchalance.
   • 2024, Patrik Jonsson and Melanie Stetson Freeman, Florida woman kills wild boar with mango. (This is not a meme.), in: The Christian Science Monitor, August 27 2024

     She almost felt insulted by [the wild boar's] insouciance as it rooted in her grove.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:apathy

Translations

carelessness, heedlessness, indifference, or casual unconcern

• German: Sorglosigkeit (de) f, Unbesorgtheit (de) f, Unbekümmertheit (de) f
• Romanian: impasibilitate (ro) f, nepăsare (ro) f, indiferență (ro) f
• Russian: безразли́чие (ru) n (bezrazlíčije)

nonchalance

• French: insouciance (fr) f
• German: Lässigkeit (de) f, Unbekümmertheit (de) f, Zwanglosigkeit f, Nonchalance (de) f, Sprezzatura (de) f, Contenance (de) f
• Romanian: nonșalanță (ro) f, degajare (ro) f, dezinvoltură (ro) f
• Russian: беззабо́тность (ru) f (bezzabótnostʹ)

French

Etymology

From insouciant +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.su.sjɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

insouciance f (plural insouciances)

1. insouciance, unconcern; carelessness, recklessness

Further reading

• “insouciance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.