panache

Definition

An ornamental plume on a helmet.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French panache, from Middle French pennache (“plume of feathers”), from Italian pennacchio, from Late Latin pinnāculum. Doublet of pinnacle.

Example Sentences

• "I had taken the panache from my shako so that it might escape notice, but even with my fine overcoat I feared that sooner or later my uniform would betray me."
• "One old gentleman, who was in the habit of reading a Paris newspaper and knew things, chuckled gleefully to everybody that Alcée’s conduct was altogether chic, mais chic. That he had more panache than Boulanger. Well, perhaps he had."
• "Cyberpunk caters to the wish-fulfillment requirements of male teen-agers, but this is a job that can be done with varying degrees of panache, and there is currently no more accomplished caterer than William Gibson."