Word of the Day

sprezzatura, n.

sprɛtsəˈt(j)ʊərə/

Etymology:  Italian.
 

  Ease of manner, studied carelessness; the appearance of acting or being done without effort; spec. of literary style or performance.

1957   N. Frye Anat. Crit. 93   The quality that the Italian critics called sprezzatura.

1960   E. H. Gombrich Art & Illusion iii. vi. 193   Sprezzatura, the nonchalance which marks the perfect courtier and the perfect artist.

1960   Spectator 14 Oct. 569   The style governed by sprezzatura, dash and mandarin neoclassicism.

1973   Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Sept. 1063/2   Literary fashion and his own aristocratic sprezzatura demanded that he affect an unconcern.

 

Sprezzatura is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it". It is the ability of the courtier to display "an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them." Sprezzatura has also been described "as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance."