loucheness means the quality of being louche, shifty or disreputable. It carries an Arena rating of 1464, earned across 72 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, loucheness ranks #885 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #3,127 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #5,592 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #5,929 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
Why “loucheness” is a great word
LOUCHENESS — [Noun] The quality of being louche; a shifty, dubious, or disreputable character, often with an alluring hint of moral ambiguity. From the French adjective louche ("squinting, cross-eyed; shady, dubious") + the English suffix -ness, forming a noun of quality. Unlike "disreputability," which suggests a settled loss of honor, or "respectability," its crisp antithesis, loucheness implies a specific, cultivated seediness. It is the glint of a cheap ring in a smoky bar, the deliberate second button left undone on a silk shirt, or the charmingly unreliable smile of someone who knows all the back doors—a glamour that has begun to curdle, revealing the quiet, compromised choices that make a life interesting.
Etymology
From louche + -ness.
noun
- The quality of being louche, shifty or disreputable.e.g.“The macho loucheness of Mr. Stephens’s Jerry never disguised a needling, pose-thwarting insecurity.” — 2007 July 24, Ben Brantley, “When Trust Is Lost, Only Disconnect”, in New York Times:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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