Sprezzatura

[Catherine Aman]

Webster's Collegiate (9/e) doesn't include sprezzatura. It does, however,
include the lovely word sprachgefuhl, which it defines as a "sensibility to
conformity with (or divergence from) the established usage of a language
(or) a feeling for which is linguistically effective or appropriate."

It seems to me that you all possess a great deal of sprachgefuhl-many thanks
for your thoughtful  replies to my inquiry yesterday (re: new words and
usages arising in the wake of Sept 11). Much appreciated!

Catherine Aman
Staff reporter
Corporate Counsel &
  American Lawyer Magazine
(212) 313-9205


> ----------
> From:         Baker, John
> Reply To:     American Dialect Society
> Sent:         Wednesday, July 17, 2002 5:48 PM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Sprezzatura
>
>         The OED defines "sprezzatura" as ease of manner, studied
> carelessness; the appearance of acting or being done without effort.  I
> found this reassuring, because that was what I thought the word meant.
> The USA TODAY interpretation is evidently based on a misreading of this
> web page:
>
> http://wso.williams.edu/~espence/sprezzatura1.html
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bapopik at AOL.COM [mailto:Bapopik at AOL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 5:28 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Sprezzatura; B-to-B; OK Sign; Ukraine food
>
> SPREZZATURA--From USA TODAY international, 17 July 2002, pg. 7B, col. 3:
>    While reading _The New York TImes_ a couple of Sundays ago, I came upon
> a word I'd never seen before.  Sprezzatura.  I asked my partner, Jack, if
> he knew what it meant.  He didn't, and he reads books with hard covers.  I
> looked in the dictionary.  (THE dictionary?--ed.)  It wasn't there, so I
> went online, typed in the word, hit "search" and up it popped.
>    You probably already know this, but it's from the Italian High
> Renaissance and describes the attributes of a man who is both a graceful
> performer and a superficial manipulator.  Because the word was used to
> describe two young men clawing their way up the ladder of New York society
> on the arm of Martha Stweart, it was the perfect fit.
>
>