Did you
know?

aplomb
noun

- confidence and style

- complete and confident composure or self-assurance

The Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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ORIGIN

Late 18th century (in the sense of uprightness, steadiness): from the French à plomb according to a plumb line (Lotschnur, Richtschnur).

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DISTINCTIONS

- CONFIDENCE is a firm belief in one’s powers, abilities, or capacities (“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face” - Eleanor Roosevelt)

- ASSURANCE even more strongly stresses certainty and can suggest arrogance (“How can you present such a questionable theory with such assurance?”)

- APLOMB implies calm poise (“It is native personality, and that alone, that endows a man to stand before presidents or generals… with aplomb” - Walt Whitman)

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SYNONYMS

- characterized by self-confidence, calmness and composure:

adeptness, APLOMB, assurance, backbone, calm, calm (demeanor), can-do attitude, certainty, certitude, composedness, composure, confidence, control, conviction,  cool-headedness, ease, elan, equanimity, even-mindedness, faith in oneself, fearlessness, imperturbability, inner peace (strength), intestinal fortitude, , level-headedness, mental balance (equilibrium, repose), poise, presence of mind, sangfroid, savoir faire, self-assurance (-assuredness, -belief, -command, -composedness, -composure, -confidence, -constraint, -control, -discipline, -esteem, -mastery, -possession, -reliance, -trust, -worth), stoicism, stolidity, stolidness, strength of character mind, will), suaveness, sureness, surety, trust in oneself, unflappability, urbanity

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Although it was her first public appearance, she delivered her speech with complete APLOMB.”

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Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40