audacity

From Medieval Latin audacitas, from Latin audax (“bold”), from audeō (“I am bold, I dare”).

• (UK) enPR: ô-dăʹsĭti, IPA^(key): /ɔːˈdæsɪti/
• (US) enPR: ô-dăʹsĭti, IPA^(key): /ɔˈdæsɪti/

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audacity (countable and uncountable, plural audacities)

1. Insolent boldness, especially when imprudent or unconventional.

   The brash private had the audacity to criticize the general.

   Somebody never pays his loans, yet he has the audacity to ask the bank for money.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “Oh?” she said. “So you have decided to revise my guest list for me? You have the nerve, the – the –” I saw she needed helping out. “Audacity,” I said, throwing her the line. “The audacity to dictate to me who I shall have in my house.” It should have been “whom”, but I let it go. “You have the –” “Crust.” “– the immortal rind,” she amended, and I had to admit it was stronger, “to tell me whom” – she got it right that time – “I may entertain at Brinkley Court and who” – wrong again – “I may not.”

2. Fearlessness, intrepid or daring, especially with confident disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.

• (insolent boldness): audaciousness, outdaciousness, temerity

• audacious

• audacity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• audacity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• audacity at OneLook Dictionary Search