The word of the day for April 8th.
Today's word is panache, spelled P-A-N-A-C-H-E.
Panache is a noun.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the BBC.
In simplest terms, panache refers to lively grace and style.
The star appeared as an airline pilot, twirling her way through baggage reclaim while shrugging off a bevy
It appears in contexts in which words like verve and flair are also applied.
of useless men, a surgeon, a priest, a magician, an astronaut.
It made absolutely no sense, but she delivered it with such panache that it barely mattered,
even when she ended the performance by pulling a dove out of a top hat.
Few literary characters can match the panache of French poet and soldier Cyrano de Bergerac
from Edmond Rostand's 1897 play of the same name.
In his dying moments, Cyrano declares that the one thing left to him is his panache,
and that assertion at once demonstrates the meaning of the word and draws upon its history.
In both French and English, panache, which traces back to the late Latin word pinaculum,
meaning small wing, originally referred to a showy feathery plume on a hat or helmet.
Our familiar figurative sense debuted in the first English translation of Rostand's play,
which made the literal plume a metaphor for Cyrano's unflagging verve, even in death.
In a 1903 speech, Rostand himself described panache with these words,
a little frivolous perhaps, most certainly a little theatrical.