verve
/vɝv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.85 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Enthusiasm, rapture, spirit, or vigour, especially of imagination such as that which animates an artist, musician, or writer, in composing or performing.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "His hands were strong and elegant; his experience of life evidently varied; his speech full of pith and verve; his manners forward, but perfectly presentable."
- "They played through vacation to the fashionable of eight cities. […] Chicago he approved for a certain verve that transcended its loud accent—however, it was a Yale town, and as the Yale Glee Club was expected in a week the Triangle received only divided homage."
- "Normally, this [girl] presents to the world the appearance of one who is feeling that if it isn't the best of all possible worlds, it's quite good enough to be going on with till a better one comes along. Verve, I mean, and animation and all that sort of thing. But now there was a listlessness about her […]"
- "But she responded with a great deal of wit and verve:[...]."
- "After spending so much of the season looking upwards, the swashbuckling style and swagger of early season Spurs was replaced by uncertainty and frustration against a Norwich side who had the quality and verve to take advantage."
- "If he be above Virgil, and is reſolv'd to follow his own Verve (as the French call it,) the Proverb will fall heavily upon him; Who teaches himſelf, has a Fool for his Maſter."
Etymology
Borrowed from French verve (“animation; caprice, whim; rapture; spirit; vigour; type of expression”), probably from Late Latin verva, a variant of Latin verba (“words; discourse; expressions; language”), the plural of verbum (“word”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to say, speak”). Doublet of verb and word.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /vɝv/
- British English: /vɜːv/