What Happens When Sitting in Class During a Boring Lecture

So, sitting in an English Writing class, I got to thinking: Where in the world did the word nonchalant come from?

Odd, I know. But someone said it and instinctively, I dissected it down into its etymological roots. Why, if the word is non-chalant, do we not have the word chalant in our vocabulary? I mean, if it ISN'T chalant, what is chalant anyway?

Naturally, I sought the assistance of what has become a very good friend to me over the years: dictionary.com. Oh, how I love this website.

So this is what I found:

[French, from Old French, present participle of nonchaloir, to be unconcerned : non-, non- + chaloir, to cause concern to (from Latin calēre, to be warm, heat up; see kelə-¹ in Indo-European roots).]

I then used my other favorite website, wordreference.com (best romance-language dictionary in existence) to validate the meaning of "chaloir" in French. This was what it listed:

chaloir ⇒

v

be important

So then I felt better. Nonchalant: Not of importance. Makes sense, right? Still, I am think I'm going to start advocating for the inclusion of some form of "chaloir" in the English vocabulary, such as "chalant."

This would be the dictionary entry:


cha·lant /ˌnɒnʃəˈlɑnt, ˈnɒnʃəˌlɑnt, -lənt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[shuh-lahnt] Pronunciation Key

–adjective
of a concerned manner: their chalant manner in the subject came as somewhat of a surprise

–Related forms
cha·lant·ly, adverb

So there you go. Feel free to use this word.