Sure, you can describe your artistic friend's newest painting as colorful. But maybe vibrant would better suggest its particularly bright hues. Or vivid. Though perhaps to your taste it's so brightly hued as to be downright garish. Or, conversely, you may appreciate such a playful harlequin display.
Dictionary Definition:
Pronounced |n(y)oōˌäns|
From root words nuer meaning "to shade" and nue meaning "cloud."
1. A slight or delicate variation or difference in expression, feeling, opinion, etc.
2. A shade of color; a slight difference or variation in shade or tone.
3. A delicate gradation in musical expression.
Nuance is a fine word, I say, notwithstanding the elliptical critique of the word delivered by Paul Reiser's character Modell in the movie Diner:
"You know what word I'm not comfortable with? Nuance. It's not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture's a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong."
You know what word I'm not comfortable with? Nuance. It's not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture's a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteModell from the movie "Diner"
Another nice thing about "nuance"--as about all the best words--is that it's pleasant to say. A General Mills food chemist would say it has a nice "mouth feel." It has the right combination of tongue and lip. It rolls around in the mouth in an almost sensuous way. I think sometimes we underestimate the primal appeal of words, the way they connect with our lizard brain, the endorphins that are released by the simple act of pronouncing them. I salute your inaugural word.
ReplyDeleteOoh, "mouth feel," a culinary term applied to vocabulary -- that's so apropos! After all, dining and conversation have throughout human history been twinned as principal means of so much of social activity, from business to romance, from happy hours and blind dates to family reunions. Eating alone has unfortunately carried a certain measure of stigma ("poor thing!") not only because the solitary diner is seen as bereft of companionship, but also of conversation. But does an extensive vocabulary make one a better conversationalist? Hmmm.
ReplyDelete