Word of the Day Archive
Saturday September 4, 2010
degage \dey-gah-ZHEY\
, adjective:
1. Unconstrained; easy, as in manner or style.
2. Without emotional involvement; detached.
Support even comes from Psi Section, a colony degage and docile, with no secular aspirations at all.
-- Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
An air of extreme haut ton, however, pervaded her whole appearance; she wore in a graceful and degage manner, a large and beautiful winding-sheet of the finest India lawn; her hair hung in ringlets over her neck; a soft smile played about her mouth; but her nose, extremely long, thin, sinuous, flexible, and pimpled, hung down far below her underlip, and, in spite of the delicate manner in which she now and then moved it to one side or the other with her tongue, gave to her countenance a somewhat equivocal expression.
-- Edgar Allen Poe, King Pest
Degage stems from the French verb dÃÂégager, "to release, free, redeem."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for degage