Contextualizebeta

verve

noun
/vɜːv/UK/vɝv/US

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.

  1. derived from *werh₁-✻ — “to say, speak”
  2. derived from verba — “words; discourse; expressions; language”
  3. derived from verva
  4. borrowed from verve — “animation; caprice, whim; rapture; spirit; vigour; type of expression”

Definitions

  1. Enthusiasm, rapture, spirit, or vigour, especially of imagination such as that which…

    Enthusiasm, rapture, spirit, or vigour, especially of imagination such as that which animates an artist, musician, or writer, in composing or performing.

    • 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.

  2. A particular skill in writing.

    • 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.

The neighborhood

Derived

vervy

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for verve. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA