Question

jaunty adjective You might not guess that the words jaunty and genteel are related—but they are. Both words evolved from the French word gentil, which carried the sense of "noble." At first jaunty was used, like genteel, for things aristocratic, but as the years went by people stopped using it that way. Today jaunty is used to describe things that are lively and perky rather than things that are aristocratic and elegant. : sprightly in manner or appearance : lively

Accepted Answer

August 25, 2018 JAWN-tee "Hitching his wistful voice and elegant violin to a jaunty tempo suggesting an Appalachian hoedown, Andrew Bird evokes a sense of restless longing on this album, his 12th." — Jon Young, Mother Jones, March/April 2012"All this, Twain relates in a jaunty, first-person style, almost a cleaned-up, more formal version of the voice he used in his previous novel, 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' (1885)." — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post, 3 July 2018

Word	jaunty
Date	August 25, 2018
Type	adjective
Syllables	JAWN-tee
Etymology	You might not guess that the words jaunty and genteel are related—but they are. Both words evolved from the French word gentil, which carried the sense of "noble." At first jaunty was used, like genteel, for things aristocratic, but as the years went by people stopped using it that way. Today jaunty is used to describe things that are lively and perky rather than things that are aristocratic and elegant.
Examples	"Hitching his wistful voice and elegant violin to a jaunty tempo suggesting an Appalachian hoedown, Andrew Bird evokes a sense of restless longing on this album, his 12th." — Jon Young, Mother Jones, March/April 2012 "All this, Twain relates in a jaunty, first-person style, almost a cleaned-up, more formal version of the voice he used in his previous novel, 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' (1885)." — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post, 3 July 2018
Definition	: sprightly in manner or appearance : lively

Jaunty Things Words Sense Lively Voice August Adjective