panache

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

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /pəˈnæʃ/, /pəˈnɑːʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -æʃ

panache (countable and uncountable, plural panaches)

1. (countable) An ornamental plume on a helmet.

   Synonyms: hackle, plume, plumage

   • 1896, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 4, in The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard:

     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.

2. (uncountable, figurative) Flamboyance, energetic style or action.

   Synonyms: dash, flamboyance, swagger, verve

   • 1894, Kate Chopin, “At the 'Cadian Ball”, in Bayou Folk:

     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.

   • 1988 December 11, Thomas M. Disch, “Lost in Cyberspace”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     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.

   • 2025 April 24, Ned Temko, “Trump’s ‘quick fix’ approach to diplomacy slow to yield results”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     It was a tantalizing promise, delivered with Donald Trump’s trademark panache: As dealmaker in chief, he would quickly end world conflicts that had defied his predecessors and their nattily dressed legions of career diplomats.

   • 2025 May 24, Raphael Abraham, “In Godard we trust”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 16:

     It takes serious chutzpah for an American to bring a film abour the French New Wave to Cannes but [Richard] Linklater pulls it off with considerable comic panache and affection.

• panache on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Inherited from Middle French pennache (“plume of feathers”), borrowed from Italian pennacchio, from Late Latin pinnāculum. Doublet of pinacle.

• IPA^(key): /pa.naʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

panache m (plural panaches)

1. (also figurative) panache
   • 1897, Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac‎^[2], Act V, Scene 5.VI:

     CYRANO: […] Oui, vous m'arrachez tout, le laurier et la rose ! / Arrachez ! Il y a malgré vous quelque chose / Que j'emporte, et ce soir, quand j'entrerai chez Dieu, / Mon salut balaiera largement le seuil bleu, / Quelque chose que sans un pli, sans une tache, / J'emporte malgré vous, / (Il s'élance l'épée haute): / et c'est. . . / (L'épée s'échappe de ses mains, il chancelle, tombe dans les bras de Le Bret et de Ragueneau.)
     ROXANE (se penchant sur lui et lui baisant le front): / C'est ?. . .
     CYRANO (rouvre les yeux, la reconnaît et dit en souriant): / Mon panache.
     

     CYRANO: […] You strip from me the laurel and the rose! / Take all! Despite you there is yet one thing / I hold against you all, and when, to-night, / I enter Christ’s fair courts, and, lowly bowed, / Sweep with doffed casque the heavens’ threshold blue, / One thing is left, that, void of stain or smutch, / I bear away despite you. / (He springs forward, his sword raised; it falls from his hand; he staggers, falls back into the arms of Le Bret and Ragueneau.)
     ROXANE (bending and kissing his forehead): ’Tis?. . .
     CYRANO (opening his eyes, recognizing her, and smiling): / My panache.
     

2. (Canada) the bulk of antlers of deer and moose
3. column or plume of smoke (cloud of smoke)

• (flamboyant style): flamboyance, verve, brio, bravoure

• → English: panache
• → Italian: panache
• → Romanian: panaș

• “panache”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
• panache on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr

• épancha

Unadapted borrowing from French panache, itself from Italian pennacchio.

panache m (invariable)

1. (fashion) panache (ornamental plumage)

   Synonym: pennacchio

• panache in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana