Volition

WORD OF THE DAY

volition / noun / voh-LISH-un

Definition

1a: the power of choosing or determining

1b: will

2a: an act of making a choice or decision

2b: a choice or decision made

Examples

"The rules of the universe created certain compulsions, as did the formal and structural conventions I'd put in motion. Slowly, without any volition from me…, the characters started to do certain things, each on his or her own, the sum total of which resulted, in the end, in a broad, cooperative pattern that seemed to be arguing for what I'd call a viral theory of goodness." 

— George Saunders, The Guardian, 4 Mar. 2017

"Mr. [Gus] Ben David said there is no chance that the wild coyote was brought to the Island by a human. 'No, no way. Coyotes, even if you raise one from a little pup, they're vicious. No way that animal was brought to this Island. That animal basically got here on its own volition,' he said." 

— Noah Asimow, The Vineyard Gazette (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts), 15 May 2019

Did You Know?

Volition ultimately derives from the Latin verb velle, meaning "to will" or "to wish." (The adjective voluntary descends from the same source.) 

English speakers borrowed the term from French in the 17th century, using it at first to mean "an act of choosing," a meaning Herman Melville employed in Moby Dick (1851): "Almost simultaneously, with a mighty volition of ungraduated, instantaneous swiftness, the White Whale darted through the weltering sea." 

Melville's use comes about a century after the word had developed an additional meaning: "the power to choose." This meaning, now the word's dominant use, is found in such sentences as "Members must join of their own volition."

Acquisitive

WORD OF THE DAY

acquisitive / adjective / uh-KWIZ-uh-tiv 

Definition
: strongly desirous of acquiring and possessing

Examples
The game aims to teach middle schoolers to balance their acquisitive instincts with a consideration of what will benefit society as a whole.

"[Property, by Lionel Shriver, is a] collection of short fiction that becomes a catalog of the ways an acquisitive urge can go astray. Renters become unhappy owners; a gift prompts a battle among friends; a man and his father feud over £160 and the price of an airmail stamp." 
— The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2018
Did You Know?
While acquisitive is a useful synonym of the likes of greedy and avaricious, it's relatively unknown compared to its more popular lexical relations, acquire and acquisition. 
The former of that pair is most often used to mean "to get as one's own," as in "skills acquired through practice"; the latter refers either to the act of acquiring something, as in "the acquisition of skills," or to something or someone acquired or gained, as in "the museum's recent acquisitions." 
All three have as their ultimate source the Latin word acquīrere, meaning "to acquire." 
While acquire and acquisition have both been in use since the 15th century, acquisitive is a bit younger. The word has a somewhat rare use meaning "capable of acquiring" that dates to the late 16th century, but its "greedy" meaning dates only to the early 19th century.

Supersede

WORD OF THE DAY

supersede / verb / soo-per-SEED

Definition
1a: to cause to be set aside
1b: to force out of use as inferior
2: to take the place or position of
3: to displace in favor of another

Examples
"What may someday supersede Einstein's hypothesis is any genius' good guess. In the meantime, not only the theory of relativity but also Newton's laws, with all their known limitations, serve us rather well in navigating through space and in constructing bridges and dams on earth."
— Henry Petroski, To Engineer is Human, 1992

"This park also supersedes what must have been the world's cleverest playground—a 10-foot-high fort made of telephone poles or logs up the hill at Rocky Ridge Park. (That simple, but popular play area was dismantled. Kids kept getting their heads stuck between the poles.)"
— Jim McClure, The York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record, 5 May 2019

Did You Know?
Supersede ultimately derives from the Latin verb supersedēre, meaning "to sit on top of" (sedēre means "to sit"), "to be superior to," or "to refrain from," but it came to us through Scots Middle English, where it was rendered superceden and used in the sense of "to defer." 

It will come as no surprise that modern English speakers can be confused about how to spell this word—it sometimes turns up as supercede. In fact, some of the earliest records of the word in English show it spelled with a 'c'. 

The 's' spelling has been the dominant choice since the 16th century, and while both spellings can be etymologically justified, supersede is now regarded as the "correct" version.

Gritty

WORD OF THE DAY

gritty / adjective / GRIT-ee

Definition
1: containing or resembling grit
2a: courageously persistent
2b: plucky
3: having strong qualities of tough uncompromising realism

Examples
"Unlike a lot of natural deodorants that also use baking soda but have a gritty texture, this stick has a gel-like consistency that doesn't aggravate tender underarm skin."
— Kristine Gill, Real Simple, 7 May 2019

"[John] Singleton was nominated for two Oscars—Best Director and Best Original Screenplay—for Boyz n the Hood…. The gritty tale of gangs in South Central Los Angeles marked the acting debuts of Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut, and also starred Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King and Angela Bassett."
— Bruce Haring, Deadline, 20 Apr. 2019

Did You Know?
Gritty comes from grit ("small hard granules"), which in turn derives, via Middle English, from an Old English word for "sand" or "gravel."
Grit has been around since before the 12th century, but the first appearance of gritty in print in English was near the end of the 16th century, when it was used in the sense of "resembling or containing small hard granules."
Grit entered American slang with the meaning "courage or persistence" in the early 19th century, and gritty followed suit with a corresponding "plucky" sense.
By the 19th century's end, gritty was also being used to describe a literary style that was rough and coarse.

Contraption

WORD OF THE DAY

contraption / noun / kun-TRAP-shun

Definition
: device, gadget

Examples
"In Connecticut, the Hartford Marathon Foundation worked with an engineering company to create a 40-foot-long drinking fountain for the finish line of its race. The contraption, known as the Bubbler, allows multiple people to drink at the same time and is estimated to have saved about 85,000 plastic bottles and wax cups since 2007, according to the foundation."
— Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2019

"And scientists are creating devices to track the decay of icebergs. The small, cylindrical contraptions will be deployed in the Arctic, where they will sit atop ice as it breaks off and floats away from larger ice formations."
— Laura Krantz, The Boston Globe, 9 May 2019

Did You Know?
English has a number of words that can be used as general terms for mechanical or electronic devices, including gadget, gizmo, widget, and contraption. In addition to their meaning, these four words also have a couple of other things in common.
First, they are all relative newcomers to the language. The oldest, contraption, entered the language in the early 1800s. Second, the origins of all four are a bit of a mystery.
While widget is believed to be an alteration of gadget, the origins of gadget are unknown—it didn't appear in print until later in the 19th century, and it is believed to have been used earlier among sailors.
Gizmo sprang into American English in the mid-20th century from origins unknown. The word contraption may be a blend of contrivance (which can be used as another synonym of gadget), trap, and invention.

Tonsorial

WORD OF THE DAY

tonsorial / adjective / tahn-SOR-ee-ul

Definition
: of or relating to a barber or the work of a barber

Examples
"Once again Ryan's Barber Shop and Shaving Parlor … provided the tonsorial team the chairs and the needed supplies for the men to sit down and get their faces cleaned up or hair trimmed."
— Steve Moran, The Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, 6 Dec. 2018

"I think we are still a long way off from having tonsorial robots, so whatever the trends and styles that come about ... as long as we are all still growing hair out of our heads, there will be patrons attending the barbershop."
— Adam Castleforte, quoted in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 24 Sept. 2018

Did You Know?
Tonsorial is a fancy word that describes the work of those who give shaves and haircuts. (It can apply more broadly to hairdressers as well.)
It derives from the Latin verb tondēre, meaning "to shear, clip, or crop." (Another descendant, tonsor, is an archaic word for a barber.)
You might be more familiar with the related noun tonsure, which refers to the shaven crown or patch worn by monks and other clerics, or the religious rite of clipping the hair of one being admitted as a cleric.
The verb tonsure means "to shave the head of" or "to confer the tonsure upon."

Demeanor

WORD OF THE DAY

demeanor / noun / dih-MEE-ner

Definition
1: behavior toward others
2: outward manner

Examples
The professor's friendly and laid-back demeanor made him a favorite among the students.

"Detroit's well-earned place as one of America's most iconic cities is a credit to its past, present and future. It is a city that has never had it easy, but its steely demeanor has also always encased and protected a powerful heart."
— Adweek.com, 14 May 2019

Did You Know?
There's a long trail from the Latin origins of demeanor to its English incarnation. It starts with minari, "to threaten"—a word connected to the threatening cries of cattle drivers.
Leaving minari, we soon encounter a close Latin relation, minare; it means "to drive," and was once used specifically of driving animals for herding.
From there, the path leads us to Anglo-French, where we pass by mener ("to lead") and then demener ("to conduct").
Next comes Middle English demenen and then Modern English demean, both meaning "to conduct (oneself) in a certain manner."
And, finally, we take one last step, and add the suffix -or to demean to get demeanor.

Insuperable

WORD OF THE DAY

insuperable / adjective / in-SOO-puh-ruh-bul

Definition
: incapable of being surmounted, overcome, passed over, or solved

Examples
Though it had appeared that the visiting team had an insuperable lead, the home team rallied to win in the end.

"'Life and Fate,' his resulting magnum opus, is not likely to be unseated as the greatest Second World War novel ever written. Grossman's challenge over the ten years of its composition seems nearly insuperable: to evoke the scope and magnitude of the conflict without turning his characters into cogs in a vast military machine."
— Sam Sacks, The New Yorker, 25 June 2013

Did You Know?
Insuperable first appeared in print in the 14th century, and as a close synonym to insurmountable, it still means now approximately what it did then.
In Latin, superare means "to go over, surmount, overcome, or excel." (The sur- in surmount is related to the Latin prefix super-.) The Latin word insuperabilis, from which insuperable is derived, was formed by combining the negative prefix in- with superare plus abilis ("able").
Hence, insuperabilis means "unable to be surmounted, overcome, or passed over," or more simply, "insurmountable."
The word can describe physical barriers that cannot be scaled (such as walls or mountains) as well as more figurative challenges, obstacles, or difficulties.

Boilerplate

WORD OF THE DAY

boilerplate / noun / BOY-ler-playt

Definition
1: syndicated material supplied especially to weekly newspapers in matrix or plate form
2a: standardized text
2b: formulaic or hackneyed language
3: tightly packed icy snow

Examples
"'I think the middle class is getting clobbered,' he said one day, over lunch. 'I think there has to be a significant change in both, over time, fiscal policy and tax policy.' He was trying to get that view 'further insinuated into the White House,' he said. It seemed like boilerplate, and I didn't quote it."
— Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 26 Apr. 2019

"… we ask each of our esteemed colleagues to negotiate hard to get anti-harassment language woven into all service agreements, to make it part of the basic boilerplate and/or the standard asks in any negotiation."
— Monika Tashman, Esq., et al., Billboard.com, 12 Nov. 2018

Did You Know?
In the days before computers, small, local newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other printed material supplied by large publishing syndicates.
The syndicates delivered that copy on metal plates with the type already in place so the local papers wouldn't have to set it.
Printers apparently dubbed those syndicated plates "boiler plates" because of their resemblance to the plating used in making steam boilers.
Soon boilerplate came to refer to the printed material on the plates as well as to the plates themselves. Because boilerplate stories were more often filler than hard news, the word acquired negative connotations and gained another sense widely used today, such as "hackneyed or unoriginal writing."

Flounce

WORD OF THE DAY

flounce / verb / FLOUNSS

Definition
1a: to move with exaggerated jerky or bouncy motions
1b: to go with sudden determination
2: flounder, struggle

Examples
"With skirts flouncing, 15 young women ascended the steps … to a traditional Mexican birthday song played in a mariachi style."
— Laurel Wamsley and Vanessa Romo, NPR, 19 July 2017

"The Master of the Music flounced out with the choir flouncing out in perfect unison behind him."
— Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals, 2009

Did You Know?
The story behind flounce is an elusive one. The verb's earliest recorded uses in English occurred in the mid-1500s, and some scholars believe it is related to the Norwegian verb flunsa (meaning "to hurry" or "to work briskly") and Swedish flunsa ("to fall with a splash" or "to plunge").
The connection is uncertain, however, because the flunsa verbs did not appear in their respective languages until the 18th century, long after flounce surfaced in English.
A second distinct sense of flounce, referring to a strip or ruffle of fabric attached on one edge, did not appear in English until the 18th century. This flounce derives from the Middle English frouncen, meaning "to curl."

Oneiric

WORD OF THE DAY

oneiric / adjective / oh-NYE-rik

Definition
1: of or relating to dreams
2: dreamy

Examples
The paintings, filled with fantastical imagery conjured by the artist's imagination, have a compellingly oneiric quality.

"Somewhere along the twisty path of the twentieth century, Vladimir Nabokov, our brilliant dreamer-in-chief, came into contact with [aeronautical engineer and philosopher John W.] Dunne's theories of oneiric prophecy and was evidently inspired by them."
— Nicholson Baker, The New Republic, 21 Feb. 2018

Did You Know?
The notion of using the Greek noun oneiros (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective oneiric wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the late 1500s and early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few oneiros spin-offs, giving English oneirocriticism, oneirocritical, and oneirocritic (each referring to dream interpreters or interpretation).
The surge in oneiros derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus.
In the 17th century, English speakers also melded Greek oneiros with the combining form ­-mancy ("divination") to create oneiromancy, meaning "divination by means of dreams."

Scrutinize

WORD OF THE DAY

scrutinize / verb / SKROO-tuh-nyze

Definition
1: to examine closely and minutely 
2: to make a scrutiny

Examples
"I think the biggest misconception out there is that every accident a commercial motor vehicle is involved in, the general public feels it is the big rig's fault. Little does the general public know that everything from what needs to be inspected each day on these vehicles to hours of service to maintenance procedures, and even training, is so highly scrutinized either through regulations or insurance policies, or even our internal audits and tracking."
— Matt McDonald, quoted in The Caledon Enterprise, 15 Apr. 2019

"… Vaughn will be held to high expectations…. She'll present her first budget report to the council Tuesday and, unlike previous meetings where city council gave scarce attention to the CFO report, her report will be closely scrutinized."
— The Dispatch (Columbus, Mississippi), 3 May 2019

Did You Know?
A close look at the etymology of scrutinize reveals that the word stems from the Latin verb scrutari (meaning "to search" or "to examine"), which in turn probably comes from scruta (meaning "trash," or more specifically "a mixture of worthwhile articles and trash").
In the 15th century, scrutari gave us the noun scrutiny, a word that originally meant "a formal vote" and then "an official examination of votes." Scrutinize retained reference to voting, with the meaning "to examine votes," at least into the 18th century. (But even today in Britain, a scrutineer is a person who counts votes.)

Equivocal

WORD OF THE DAY

equivocal / adjective / ih-KWIV-uh-kul

Definition
1a: subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuse
1b: uncertain as an indication or sign
2a: of uncertain nature or classification
2b: of uncertain disposition toward a person or thing
2c: undecided
2d: of doubtful advantage, genuineness, or moral rectitude

Examples
When I asked Frances how her job was going, she gave me an equivocal response: "Let's just say I won't be a sous-chef for much longer."

"'I don't know if this is gonna be terrible or brilliant,' says one of the brothers. Had he realised that he'd be the subject of a feature documentary, he might have been less equivocal."
— Ryan Gilbey, The New Statesman, 21 Nov. 2018

Did You Know?
Equivocal, vague, and ambiguous all mean "not clearly understandable" and are used to describe confusing speech or writing.
Equivocal—which can be traced back to the Latin prefix aequi- (equi-) and the Latin word vox ("voice")—applies to language left open to differing interpretations with the intention of deceiving or evading ("moral precepts with equivocal phrasing").
Vague implies a lack of clear formulation due to inadequate conception or consideration ("I had only a vague idea of how to get there"). Ambiguous, like equivocal, applies to language capable of more than one interpretation but usually does not have the negative connotations of deception or evasion ("the poet's wording is intentionally ambiguous").

Chasten

WORD OF THE DA Y

chasten / verb / CHAY-sun 

Definition

1a: to correct by punishment or suffering : discipline; also 

1b: purify

2a: to prune (something, such as a work or style of art) of excess, pretense, or falsity 

2b: refine

2c: to cause to be more humble or restrained 

2d: subdue

Examples

He was very arrogant as a younger man, but he has been sufficiently chastened by life's hardships and is now more cognizant of his own failings and weaknesses.

"My hubris awakened the wrath of the Phlegm Gods who long ago decreed that should one choose to live in Austin, 'It's not if you will develop allergies, it's when.' To chasten me they sent us one of the wettest winters on record just to get every tree, shrub and blade of grass within breathing distance in the mood." 

— Sarah Bird, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, 14 Apr. 2019

Did You Know?

If you say you would castigate or chastise someone in order to chasten them, you demonstrate a good knowledge of the origin of chasten—all three verbs derive from the Latin verb castigare, meaning "to punish." (Castigare combines Latin castus, which means "pure" and is the source of English chaste, with the verb agere, meaning "to lead" or "to drive.") 

Castigate, chastise, and chasten share the sense of "to subject to severe and often physical punishment," but all three verbs are now as likely to refer to a verbal dressing-down as to a physical lesson. 

Chasten (which arrived in English via Anglo-French chastier) can also be used to mean "to prune of excess, pretense, or falsity." This led to the more general sense of "to make more subdued," although the humility can be imposed by a humiliating situation as easily as by a strict taskmaster.

Ineffable

WORD OF THE DAY

Ineffable / adjective / in-EFF-uh-bul

Definition

1a: incapable of being expressed in words 

1b: indescribable

1c: inexpressibly bad 

1d: unspeakable 

2a: not to be uttered 

2b: taboo

Examples

"Undaunted, in 'Why You Like It' Nolan Gasser attempts to explain the ineffable ways music produces sensations in listeners' brains: its power to move people to tears, evoke awe and induce involuntary toe-tapping." 

— The Economist, 27 Apr. 2019

"Such haziness was inevitable, because the questions Buber was trying to answer were the most ineffable ones of human life: What is the meaning of our existence? How can we achieve the feeling of wholeness that we so painfully lack?" 

—Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2019

Did You Know?

"Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. 

The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness," wrote Frederick Douglass in his autobiography. 

Reading Douglass's words, it's easy to see that ineffable means "indescribable" or "unspeakable." When we break down the word to its Latin roots, it's easy to see how those meanings came about. Ineffable comes from ineffābilis, which joins the prefix in-, meaning "not," with the adjective effābilis, meaning "capable of being expressed." 

Effābiliscomes from effārī("to speak out"), which in turn comes from ex- and fārī ("to speak").

Bombast

Word of the Day : June 7, 2019

bombast /noun / BAHM-bast

Definition

: pretentious inflated speech or writing

Examples

Laura complained that the editorial columns in her local newspaper were full of bombast and offered little in the way of intelligent opinion.

"Now that a new top-grossing movie of all time is about to be crowned, it seems the bombast of summer tentpole season has begun." 

— Richard Lawson and K. Austin Collins, Vanity Fair, 6 May 2019

Did You Know?

The original meaning of bombast in English was "cotton or other material used as padding or stuffing." It is derived through Anglo-French bombés or bombace, from a Medieval Latin word (of various forms, including bambax and bombax) meaning "cotton plant, cotton fiber or wadding." 

Bombax was once thought to be a corruption of bombyx, a Latin (and ultimately Greek) word that means "silkworm" or "silk," although etymologists weren't certain why the shift from silk to cotton occurred. 

It turns out, however, that bombast's origins are more direct and unassuming: the Latin bombax is not a product of the silky bombyx but was borrowed from the Middle Greek bámbax, pámbax, which in turn probably traces back to the Middle Persian pambak ("cotton"). 

Bombast is no longer used in the sense of cotton padding or stuffing, but the word has been retained in modern English in a figurative sense referring to speech or writing that is stuffed or padded with pretense and unnecessary verbiage.

Kinetic

WORD OF THE DAY

kinetic / adjective / kuh-NET-ik

Definition

1: of or relating to the motion of material bodies and the forces and energy associated therewith

2a: active, lively

2b: dynamic, energizing

3: of or relating to kinetic art

Examples

"See, that's where the height of the spaghetti mound comes in. The entire question hinges on how much momentum the meatball obtains as it rolls down. If the mound is very tall, the force of gravity could transform the meatball's potential energy into sufficient kinetic energy." 

— Arthur B. McDonald, The Washington Post Magazine, 17 Mar. 2019

"East London's kinetic buzz of nightclubs, galleries, mosques, boutiques, synagogues, workers, government housing and condos, not to mention the traffic and the food markets … well, it can make a newcomer dizzy." 

— José Sarmento Matos and Evelyn Nieves, The New York Times, 20 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?

Kinetic comes from the Greek word kinētikos, meaning "of motion," which in turn traces to the verb kinein, meaning "to move." 

Compared to some other English words that have their roots in Greek, kinetic is a relatively young English word; the earliest evidence we have of its use is from the 19th century. 

Although it deals with the motion of images rather than material bodies, the word cinema is also related to kinein. 

The verb kinein is the source of the Greek kinēma, meaning "movement," to which the French referred in the coining of their cinématographe. 

Cinématographe is the word that gave rise to the English word cinematograph, of which cinema is simply a shortened form.

Malapert

WORD OF THE DAY

malapert / adjective / mal-uh-PERT

Definition

1: impudently bold 

2: saucy

Examples

"Fair ladies, brave knights, churls, varlets, squires, scurvy knaves, men-at-arms, malapertrogues—all were merry." 

— P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories, 1914

"Hers were never the records you confessed to owning—especially 'How Am I Supposed to Live Without You'—but the payoff of having a musical affair with her was hearing her blissfully malapert voice rip the material to shreds." 

— Christopher Muther, The Boston Globe, 21 Aug. 2005

Did You Know?

Malapert debuted in English in the 15th century, was a favorite of Shakespeare, and is still used sporadically today. The prefix mal-, meaning "bad" or "badly" and deriving from the Latin malus, is found in many English words, including malevolent and malefactor. 

The second half of malapert comes from the Middle English apert, meaning "open" or "frank." 

Apert further derives from the Latin word apertus ("open"), which gave us our noun aperture (meaning "an opening"). 

Putting the two halves together gives us a word that describes someone or something that is open or honest in a bad way—that is, in a way that is rudely bold. 

The noun malapert also exists and means "a bold or impudent person."

Amalgamate

WORD OF THE DAY

amalgamate / verb / uh-MAL-guh-mayt

Definition

1: to unite in or as if in a mixture of elements 

2: to merge into a single body

Examples

"Rolls-Royce has operational service centres around the world, in which expert engineers are analysing the data being fed back from their engines. It can amalgamate the data from its engines to highlight factors and conditions under which engines might need maintenance." 

— Bernard Marr, Forbes, 1 June 2015

"When all the smaller municipalities in Hamilton-Wentworth were amalgamated into the City of Hamilton in 2001, there was resistance from the smaller suburban communities to the loss of their local governments." 

— Peter Clutterbuck, The Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, 27 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

The noun amalgam derives, by way of Middle French, from Medieval Latin amalgama. It was first used in the 15th century with the meaning "a mixture of mercury and another metal." 

(Today, you are likely to encounter this sense in the field of dentistry; amalgams can be used for filling holes in teeth.) Use of amalgam broadened over time to include any mixture of elements, and by the 18th century the word was also being applied figuratively, as in "an amalgam of citizens." 

The verb amalgamate has been in use since the latter half of the 1500s. It too can be used either technically, implying the creation of an alloy of mercury, or more generally for the formation of any compound or combined entity.

Nuance

WORD OF THE DAY

Nuance / noun / NOO-ahnss

Definition

1: a subtle distinction or variation

2a: a subtle quality 

2b: nicety

3 : sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value)

Examples

"Poetry can enrich the academic and creative life of every student—from a second-grade English Language Learner exploring the nuances of language to the high school student learning to craft stories beyond their next text message." 

— Suma Karaman Rosen, The Detroit Free Press, 5 Apr. 2019

"The beloved diva sustained exquisite control of her vast vocal resources, enriching line after line with gleaming tone and subtle nuance." 

—Martin Bernheimer, The Financial Times, 15 Nov. 2016

Did You Know?

The history of nuance starts in Latin with the noun nubes, meaning "cloud." 

Nubesfloated into Middle French as nue, also meaning "cloud," and nuegave rise to nuer, meaning "to make shades of color." 

Nuer in turn produced nuance, which in Middle French meant "shade of color." English borrowed nuance from French, with the meaning "a subtle distinction or variation," in the late 18th century. 

That use persists today. Additionally, nuance is sometimes used in a specific musical sense, designating a subtle, expressive variation in a musical performance (such as in tempo, dynamic intensity, or timbre) that is not indicated in the score.