verve

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Great energy, enthusiasm, and style, especially in art or performance.

   She played the violin with such verve that the audience leapt to their feet.

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.

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