Make Your Point > Archived Issues > POCOCURANTE
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pronounce
POCOCURANTE:
Say it "PO ko cure RAN tee."
Or, if you prefer, "PO ko cure RON tee."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Today we're checking out a word from the same Voltaire novel that gave us Panglossian. (Could you recall what kind of person a Pangloss is?)
With thanks again to Voltaire: a pococurante is someone very chill who cares very little, like Mercutio here.
Benvolio: "By my head, here comes the Capulets."
Mercutio: "By my heel, I care not."
Well, okay. Mercutio is pococurante in that moment, but not others, especially when he's fatally stabbed and wishing a plague on everybody's house.
The word pococurante traces back to the Latin paucus, meaning "few, or little;" and curare, "to care, to care for, or to cure."
So, pococurante is cousins with our word pauc___, meaning "a shortage: a too-small amount." Can you recall that one? It often pairs with its opposite plethora, as in "a plethora of projects and a pauc___ of time."
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
We took "pococurante" from Italian. It has Latin bits that mean "(someone who) cares very little."
In Voltaire's 1759 novel Candide, Pococurante is an Italian character who, appropriately, is a rich man with an easy life who treats people with polite indifference--and who's never pleased or impressed with anything, no matter how wonderful it is. After sharing an evening of lavish food and entertainment with Pococurante, Candide and Martin argue about whether or not he's actually happy. Nothing troubles him, but nothing pleases him, either, except maybe pointing out how nothing pleases him. (You can read the whole episode here; it's very short.)
So, in English, since about 1762, we've referred to people as pococurantes if, like the Voltaire character, they seem laidback, indifferent, unworried, and unimpressed.
In other words, a pococurante is a person who's always relaxed and never gets worried OR excited about anything.
Around 1815, we also started using this word as an adjective. Pococurante things are relaxed, unworried, and unexcited.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Often a noun, the countable kind: "She's such a pococurante."
Also an adjective: "She rolls her eyes and gives a pococurante sigh."
Other forms:
Pococurantes, pococurantish, pococurantism.
If you prefer, put these words in italics to emphasize their foreignness.
how to use it:
"Pococurante" is a very rare word in English. You're more likely to hear it at a spelling bee than in an actual conversation, and because it sounds so Italian and so literary, you might well ask, "Does this word really belong in my speech and writing? Will there ever be any situation in which it's more appropriate to use this word instead of normal ones that everyone knows, like 'aloof,' 'mellow,' 'blasé,' 'nonchalant,' or 'indifferent'?"
Maybe not. But you only live once! Refer to people as pococurantes, or talk about pococurante people, places, attitudes, expressions, gestures, lifestyles, etc.
examples:
"Patrick McCabe's new novel has a good, if familiar, opening... the dreamy pococurante needs to bluff his way into employment at a top National School."
— Philip MacCann, The Guardian, 26 May 1995
"A gust of river wind sprayed my entire shirtfront with damp powdered sugar; I remained placidly pococurante."
— Alan Coren, Pick of Punch Magazine, 1985
has this page helped you understand "pococurante"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "pococurante" without saying "indifferent" or "nonchalant."
try it out:
As with most personality traits, pococurantism comes in degrees. It's not all-or-nothing, but more of a sliding scale. Unless you're the Voltaire character and your name is literally Pococurante, you're probably pococurante in some situations, but not others, right?
Talk about whether or not you agree. See if you can describe a situation in which you were pococurante, and another in which you definitely weren't.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for September is "Four Quick Ways to Wreck a Sentence: From Professionally Polished to Strategically Sabotaged."
In each issue this month, compare two versions of a description of a popular movie. See if you can determine which is the real one (the professionally polished version from IMDB.com) and which is the fake one (the strategically sabotaged version from yours truly). The fake one will demonstrate one of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence, listed below. So, for an extra challenge, see if you can identify which of these four has been employed in the act of sabotage.
Here are the four quick ways to wreck a sentence:
1. Make the details fuzzier or fewer.
2. Jumble the order of information, forcing the reader to slow down or back up.
3. Ruin the rhythm by breaking a pattern in a pair or list.
4. Make the whole thing a chore to read by swapping in a subject that's long or abstract, and/or a verb that's vague or passive. Make it even worse by pushing the subject and the verb really far away from each other.
(Naturally, if you invert each item above, you get Four Quick Ways to Strengthen a Sentence.)
Here's an example:
Version A: "The Shawshank Redemption: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency."
Version B: "The Shawshank Redemption: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding eventual redemption and solace through acts of common decency."
Which is real, and which is fake? And in the fake one, which of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence have I employed?
Answer: A is real; B is fake. The fake was created with #2, "Jumble the order of information." Readers find it easier to process information when it's in a logical or chronological order, and when they can start with the shorter, simpler words and phrases before moving on to the longer, more complex ones. Here, it's better to write "solace and eventual redemption" instead of "eventual redemption and solace," for three reasons. One, the characters in the story probably achieve solace before they achieve redemption; two, solace as a concept is less intense and less abstract than redemption; and three, "solace" is many syllables shorter than "eventual redemption."
Try this one today:
Version A: "The Matrix: When a stranger leads computer hacker Neo to an underworld, he discovers the truth--the life he knows is the deception of a cyber-intelligence."
Version B: "The Matrix: When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence."
Which is real, and which is fake? And in the fake one, which of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence have I employed?
To see the answers, scroll all the way down.
review this word:
A. ANXIOUS, HIGH-STRUNG, and EXCITABLE.
B. FEARLESS, DAREDEVIL, and THRILL-SEEKING.
C. EFFECTIVE, RESTORATIVE, and MIRACULOUS.
2.
In Voltaire's Candide, Signor Pococurante refers to the opera as "_____" and "_____."
A. paltry .. noise
B. ghastly .. an offense
C. the pinnacle of pleasure .. a joy
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Today we're checking out a word from the same Voltaire novel that gave us Panglossian. (Could you recall what kind of person a Pangloss is?)
We took "pococurante" from Italian. It has Latin bits that mean "(someone who) cares very little."
Part of speech:
"Pococurante" is a very rare word in English. You're more likely to hear it at a spelling bee than in an actual conversation, and because it sounds so Italian and so literary, you might well ask, "Does this word really belong in my speech and writing? Will there ever be any situation in which it's more appropriate to use this word instead of normal ones that everyone knows, like 'aloof,' 'mellow,' 'blasé,' 'nonchalant,' or 'indifferent'?"
"Patrick McCabe's new novel has a good, if familiar, opening... the dreamy pococurante needs to bluff his way into employment at a top National School."
Explain the meaning of "pococurante" without saying "indifferent" or "nonchalant."
As with most personality traits, pococurantism comes in degrees. It's not all-or-nothing, but more of a sliding scale. Unless you're the Voltaire character and your name is literally Pococurante, you're probably pococurante in some situations, but not others, right?
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |