Sprezzatura: Word of the Day

A new word appeared in my inbox today.   I hadn’t run across it before, despite a long-standing interest in words and language. I was compelled to learn more about it.

The word appeared in an email in reference to architecture and interior design.  It’s origin is Italian (of course) describing a kind of deceit employed by courtiers as they carefully and studiously went about hiding the extreme effort needed to excel and stand out in a royal court.   The word is used today to mean “studied nonchalance” and even “effortless style” in reference to contemporary men’s clothing fashion.

The late, great William Safire wrote about the word in the New York Times in 2002.  The New Yorker ran a piece on sprezzatura last year.  An internet search brings up mainly sartorial references.  Wikipedia provides a brief etymology and a source reference.

My correspondent used the word in opposition to affectation, in the sense that affectation can be contrasted with nonchalance.  To strive to stand out from others with affectation is somehow honest, while to strive with similar effort, but with the effort carefully hidden from view, seems somehow phony.  There is deceit in the hiding, and maybe a little conceit.

Sprezzatura is all about striving to stand out from others. At its root is a selfish and fragile ego, no?  Maybe that’s what makes the world go ’round.   That is how you get ahead in a royal court, according to Baldassarre Castiglione, in a milieu of powerful figures and competing influence.  In the 400 years since he wrote his views on the subject, little seems to have changed!