7 Delightfully Charming Words to Perk Up Your Conversation

Add a touch of flair and finesse (without pompousness) to your dialogue

There’s an old adage that goes, “How you do anything is how you do everything”. In essence, anything you can do can be a meagre half-hearted exertion, or a jubilant and delicate work of art. A simple conversation can be a linguistic dance of intricacy, ingenuity and inspiration.

The English language has its own bedrock of vocabulary that dates back to the settlement of Anglo-Saxon tribes in Britain, in the 5th century. It has since been enriched with borrowed words from Old Norse, Latin, Greek, French, German, Yiddish, Spanish, Arabic and even Japanese, weaving together a bustling blend of ancient history and roots, and adaptive absorption and assimilation.

1. Numinous (ˈnü-mə-nəs; adj.)

Numinous originates from the Latin word numen, meaning ‘divine will’. It means to have “a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity”, or “supernatural; mysterious”. When describing the spiritual, metaphysical or sacred; that which can be perceived by the ‘higher’ self, numinous is an optimal adjective.

Sasha was entranced by the numinous energy of Stonehenge.

The greatest stories are those that resonate our beginnings and intuit our endings, our mysterious origins and our numinous destinies, and dissolve them both into one.

— Ben Okri

2. Effervescent (ˌe-fər-ˈve-sᵊnt; adj.)

Like numinous, effervescent has its roots in Latin. It is derived from effervescentem, which means “to boil up; to boil over”. Effervescent means bubbly, and can be used to describe a beverage or a person. According to Lexico, the first definition is “(of a liquid) giving off bubbles; fizzy.” The second meaning denotes “vivacious and enthusiastic”. Merriam-Webster describes the latter as “marked by or expressing an appealingly lively quality”.

Zara was an idiosyncratic soul — bold, unencumbered and unapologetically effervescent.

For the first time in a long time, connection had replaced connectedness. I’d never seen anything like it before, not on this scale. The effervescent pulse of human interaction. People turning to faces instead of screens. It was a splendor of its own. — Lauren Miller

3. Desultory (ˈde-səl-ˌtȯr-ē; adj.)

Desultory is another word with Latin ancestry. It was birthed from desultorius, which means hasty, which itself came from desultor (a rider at a circus, who jumps from one horse to another). It later evolved to mean “lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm”, or speaking about a topic unrelated to the conversation, or flitting through conversation with a half-hearted disposition.

Joe wandered Istanbul in a desultory fashion; he just walked, with no destination or ambition in mind.

Having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory wanderer over the face of the earth.

— Edward Bulwer-Lytton

4. Ossify (ä-sə-ˌfī; verb)

Ossify entered the English language from the Latin word os (bone), via the French term ossifier. Originally a medical term, it means to “turn into bone”. It also pertains to becoming “rigid or fixed in attitude or position; cease developing.” When one’s attitudes are no longer dynamic, adaptive and malleable, when they no longer grow and evolve, they are said to ossify or rigidify.

Harry’s political views began to ossify, and his support for the party was unwavering, despite their questionable propositions.

I think ideas should be flying about and banging into each other. It is a kind of energy. If you occupy static positions, then things sort of ossify.

— Tom Paulin

5. Myriad (ˈmir-ē-əd; adj.)

Myriad has its etymological roots in Greek, but entered English through French and Latin. The Greek word myrias, meaning “ten thousand” or “a great number of things” was borrowed by Late Latin, which birthed the French variation, myriade. Myriad denotes “countless or extremely great in number”, and is a decorous synonym for innumerable or infinite.

The dazzling city skyline, with its myriad lights, lofty architecture and spirited ambitions, revived my prosaic and insipid afternoon with fresh hope.

We keep drifting from one city to another, inhaling the inimitable fragrances of the myriad places.

― Avijeet Das

6. Insouciance (in-ˈsü-sē-ən(t)s; noun)

Insouciance is a loan word from French, meaning “indifference or unconcern”. It is derived from the Latin word sollicitare (to agitate), in conjunction with the prefix in (not). In English, it means “lighthearted unconcern; nonchalance”. While insouciance has a more positive connotation than apathy, there is a fine distinction between being merrily untroubled, and blatantly uncaring, and insouciance can pertain to either.

I must confess — I somewhat envied his youthful insouciance, alongside his blissful and boyish oblivion of the horrors around him.

India has known the innocence and insouciance of childhood, the passion and abandon of youth, and the ripe wisdom of maturity that comes from long experience of pain and pleasure; and over and over a gain she has renewed her childhood and youth and age.

— Jawaharlal Nehru

7. Piquant (ˈpē-kənt; adj.)

Piquant, too, was assimilated into English from French. It meant “pricking, stimulating, irritating” in French, and was commonly used to describe things that were “sharp or stinging” to one’s feelings. Currently, in English, it is used to express when one’s palate, or psyche, has been positively gratified. Piquant denotes “Having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetising flavour” or “pleasantly stimulating or exciting to the mind.”

Peter Frankopan’s ‘Silk Roads’ is filled with piquant descriptions on every page.

Nothing is more piquant than when a man of genius possesses mannerisms; not so when they possess him.

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

A single conversation, with a full and connected intention and presence, can be the delicate gossamer threads that weave together to create a numinous tapestry of wonder. Words can soothe the soul of desultory tendencies (before they ossify into insouciance), and beckon the effervescent spirit of purpose and communion.

Essentially, language does not have to be monotonous and ordinary — one can resuscitate it with fresh life, and depart on a glorious and piquant linguistic journey, with myriad colourful words and meanings to spin together.