verve

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from French verve (“animation; caprice, whim; rapture; spirit; vigour; type of expression”), probably from Late Latin verva, a variant of Latin verba (“words; discourse; expressions; language”), the plural of verbum (“word”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to say, speak”). Doublet of verb and word.

1. Enthusiasm, rapture, spirit, or vigour, especially of imagination such as that which animates an artist, musician, or writer, in composing or performing.

   “His hands were strong and elegant; his experience of life evidently varied; his speech full of pith and verve; his manners forward, but perfectly presentable.”

   “They played through vacation to the fashionable of eight cities. […] Chicago he approved for a certain verve that transcended its loud accent—however, it was a Yale town, and as the Yale Glee Club was expected in a week the Triangle received only divided homage.”

2. A particular skill in writing.

   “If he be above Virgil, and is reſolv'd to follow his own Verve (as the French call it,) the Proverb will fall heavily upon him; Who teaches himſelf, has a Fool for his Maſter.”