Vocabulary from “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”: Insouciant

wondrous memeTime to learn something new with Wondrous Words Wednesday.  All die-hard word nerds should visit Kathy’s blog for links to more intriguing words.

Earlier this month, the winter blues pulled me down.  Fresh from my trip to Maui, I felt the chill of the Polar Vortex with painful sensitivity.  I didn’t want to read something cold or dark (so, The Book Thief will have to wait… til spring.)  I wanted fun!

Thank goodness I picked up Where’d You Go, Bernadette at Barnes and Noble.  A book club buddy recommended it, and one night, at 10pm, when I couldn’t go to sleep, I flipped it open.

I was chuckling by the third page.

Find it on Goodreads
Find it on Goodreads

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple, is an amusing story about falling apart and pulling together. Bernadette Fox is a brilliant, but phobic, architect turned stay at home mom, and life in suburban Seattle might just push her over the edge.  I haven’t finished yet (because I have four children) but I love the epistolary format, quirky characters, and witty humor.  And I sense that underneath the humor, Semple has some meaningful points to make.

word nerd note:  epistolary means written in the form of a series of letters; think The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (another AWESOME read).

My word comes from a letter that Elgin Branch writes to a psychiatrist about his wife, Bernadette:

We were both from the East Coast and had gone to prep school.  Bernadette was a rising star.  I was taken by her beauty, gregariousness, and insouciant charm.

insouciant \in-sü-sē-ənt\ adj; from French in- + soucier to trouble or disturb; lighthearted, relaxed, calm

I had never seen this word and couldn’t guess at its meaning.  Thanks for the help, Websters!

Word Nerd Workout

What would be a good antonym for insouciant?  Imagine yourself late to an important appointment and stuck behind an accident on a busy thoroughfare with lots of traffic lights.  And you just spilled soda on your lap.  Go!

Thanks for playing!

Julia 

PS: Don’t forget to enter Anna Silver’s giveaway; she’s raffling off a copy of her YA dystopian/sci fi novel Otherborn.  Visit her guest post to enter.

 

Julia Tomiak
I believe in the power of words to improve our lives, and I help people find interesting words to read. Member of SCBWI.

13 Comments

      1. Okay, confession: I haven’t been to Seattle, but I do have friends who live there. I’m sure some of the setting was caricaturized, but it seemed to encapsulate things I’ve heard about that area.

  1. I must have skipped right over that word when I read the book – shame on me! An antonym for insouciant – agitated. Oh, and thanks for teaching me what epistolary means!

  2. Love the words! I’ve picked up Bernadette a few times at the library but have not yet checked it out. I hear great things. Thanks for the recommendation. You’ll be glad to know I’m still using “knackered” in every conversation I have with my daughter. She loves it. Antonym – I’m going to say swivet, another word you taught me 🙂

  3. Hi Julia,

    I would already be nervous about the impending appointment and therefore anxious about being on time for it. Being highly strung, as I am, after spilling soda all down myself and with a high probability that I was also going to be late, I would be frantic and on the verge of a nervous breakdown by now!

    Great fun, thanks for the challenge,

    Yvonne.

  4. I had to check out this word when I read Where’d You Go, Bernadette? I didn’t much care for the book. But I am an old lady, so maybe my “funnybone” is broken.

    An antonym for insouciant – upset, frantic, angry,

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