It's the Word of the Day for April 26th.
Today's word is nonchalant, spelled N-O-N-C-H-A-L-A-N-T.
Nonchalant is an adjective.
Someone described as nonchalant is relaxed and calm,
either because they don't care about something or because they're not worried about something.
Nonchalant can also be used to describe something such as demeanor or behavior that expresses such relaxed,
calm unconcern.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Evening Times of Glasgow.
He is largely unaffected by the fame and fortune,
and all the talk of greatness tends to be greeted with a nonchalant shrug.
Since the word nonchalant ultimately comes from the words meaning not and to be warm,
it's no surprise that the word is all about keeping one's cool.
Nonchalant's old French ancestor is the verb nonchaloir, meaning to disregard,
which combines non, meaning not, with chaloir, meaning to concern.
Chaloir, in turn, traces back to the Latin word calere, meaning to be warm.
Caleri is also the forerunner of the heat-related English word calorie.
You might assume that the prefix non- implies the existence of an autonomous shallant,
but no such word has developed in English.
It's no big deal, though.
If you want a word that means the opposite of nonchalant,